


Family History

by hhhhhhhappycow



Series: Letters [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Orphanage, F/M, Gen, I kind of reduce Hiashi Hyuuga to a one dimensional villain here I'm sorry, I'm Bad At Summaries, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Lee is trans, M/M, Mentions of homophobia, So is Itachi, The kids are in an orphanage, Updates every other week or so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 99,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23266615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhhhhhhappycow/pseuds/hhhhhhhappycow
Summary: Sakura turned back to Naruto and Sasuke, ignoring whatever other drama was taking place in their classroom. This was what mattered: Her group.“Isn’t this exciting? The three of us working together!”She looked at Sasuke. He was sat with his fingers laced together in front of his face, glaring off to the side.Hopefully, she turned to Naruto, searching for at least a smile. His earlier eager demeanor had soured, apparently; he gave a noncommittal grunt, eyes narrowed into a glare focused intently on their third group member.Ah. Now that she thought about the fact that they were actually going to have to do a project together, picking to go with these two might have been a mistake.(Or, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke discover some mysterious coded letters hidden in the roof of their orphanage and try to uncover who wrote them and why they have been hidden away for years.)
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Dai-nana-han | Team Seven & Konoha 12, Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy, Sarutobi Asuma/Yuuhi Kurenai, Some implied/referenced crushes but that's just the kids and nothing really happens, Uchiha Itachi/Uchiha Izumi (mentioned)
Series: Letters [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673020
Comments: 15
Kudos: 62





	1. Chapter 1

“He twisted at the noise, drawing a kunai and raising it in anticipation of an attack, only to see that it was his lover who had followed him after all. He crossed the distance between them and drew her to him without a word. Their kiss began softly but soon deepened, both of them moving in a mindless flurry of passion. He could feel her firm-”

Tsunade coughed.

“Er”, Jiraiya glanced up from the book, then began to flick through the pages. “We’ll just skip ahead a little.” He cleared his throat, eyes darting once more to the back of the room where Tsunade was tapping her foot, arms folded. The turning of pages increased to a frantic pace.

Naruto tried not to laugh as he glanced around from where he sat right at the front, cross-legged, on the floor of the common room. There hadn’t been enough room on the couches for everyone, and the younger kids- led by Konohamaru and his friends- had gotten there first. Moegi was giggling now, whispering something to Udon.

The titters seemed to ripple out from them and across the room in all directions. Tsunade coughed again.

In front of Konohamaru on the floor, Rock Lee was staring up at Jiraiya, his brow furrowing deeper with each passing second. Sakura leaned over and whispered something to him, lips quirked in a mischievous smile, and Naruto watched as Lee’s whole face went bright red, the way it did when he had one of his moments and decided to run around the house until he collapsed.

A glint of blue caught his eye and Naruto swiveled his head. His roommate of two months, Sasuke Uchiha, was sat just a few feet away, arms and legs crossed. Naruto hadn’t noticed him sit down; the last he’d seen of him, Sasuke had been leaning against the wall, staring out of the tall window into fields.

Sasuke shifted again, drawing one knee up to his chest and letting out a huff of breath. Naruto caught another blue highlight. He wished his hair was as cool as Sasuke’s. It looked black, most of the time, but when the light caught it just right it looked blue. He would never tell Sasuke that, though. Sasuke spent most of his day glaring in sullen silence at whoever was speaking to him. Now was no different: He looked as bored and aloof as ever.

Naruto’s gaze drifted back to the workers, clustered in a crowd behind the nearest couch, watching Jiraiya’s struggle. Their expressions ranged from sympathy to amusement to, in Tsunade’s case, annoyance. Shizune, outside of the main reception for once, was tugging Tsunade’s arm with a face akin to panic. Anko was wincing. Kakashi was… The most interested Naruto had ever seen him look.

One hand clutched the curtains he stood by, feet from where Sasuke had been minutes before. Kakashi leaned in towards the center of the room, eyes wide and fixated on what was going on behind Naruto.

Without meaning to, Naruto laughed, then swiftly slapped his hands across his mouth.

Someone cleared their throat directly behind his head, deep and loud.

Naruto twisted back around, feeling the friction of the old carpet against his legs, and realized Jiraiya had found his page and was waiting to continue.

“Glad I amuse you, young Naruto”, Jiraiya teased, eyes twinkling.

“Oh. Sorry.” Naruto ducked his head. “Carry on.”

“Actually, I think maybe we should stop there for today.” Tsunade stepped forward and raised her hands as she spoke.

A chorus of moans arose, mostly from the younger children, although Rock Lee’s boo sounded clear and loud above the small crowd.

Jiraiya’s hands dropped to his hips, large arms sticking out like wings on either side of him. "Aw, come on, Tsunade. Let’s give the people what they want.”

Naruto could see the book covers flapping as Jiraiya held it at his side. Underneath the opaque black dust jacket was another cover, of what looked like a woman wailing. He leaned forward, squinting to make out the rest, just to have his view obscured by Tsunade moving forward to stand next to Jiraiya.

After muttering something that froze Jiraiya’s expression, Tsunade addressed the group; “It’s back to school on Monday, remember, so we need to get back into a routine of going to bed early. Some of us more than others.”

Naruto scowled. He hated early bedtime. There was no shortage of hiding places among the half-empty wings of the home, especially the restricted abandoned one, but no matter where he went one of the workers always found him on their nightly rounds.

“Do you have a tracking device on me?”, he’d asked once, when he was about eight, as Iruka- then only a fresh-faced part-time staff member- carried him under the armpits back towards his room.

Iruka had sighed, and Naruto struggled and tipped his head right back so he could watch the man’s face for signs that he was lying. “No, Naruto. The fact that your bed was empty was enough of a clue.”

He swore he could remember when he was part of the younger group, the over-twelves being allowed to stay up so much later. Maybe Tsunade had changed the rules to ruin his life specifically, now that he had turned thirteen. It wouldn’t surprise him. The last other over-twelve, a sixteen-year-old girl who mostly kept to herself, had been transferred to another home about two years ago, and the home had no more over-twelves until Lee turned thirteen, several months before Naruto.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Naruto noticed that the crowd was dispersing and filtering out through to the corridors. He turned to ask Sasuke if Tsunade had said anything else, but he was already gone. He caught a glimpse of him vanishing through the door between a couple of workers.

“See you in the morning, Naruto”, Lee chirruped as he passed.

“See you”, Sakura echoed.

Naruto leaped to his feet. “Goodnight, guys!” He sprinted to the corridor.

Peering over the head of the girl in front of him, he tried to spot Sasuke. Maybe he could catch up to him before he got back. Maybe then Sasuke would talk to him today. He had sat next to him, after all. New kids were usually quiet, but this was the first time Naruto had a roommate in a few years, and it was kind of awkward trying to start a conversation and receiving blunt answers in response; that was if Sasuke decided to respond at all.

“Hey! Watch it, Naruto!”, the girl yelled as he rested one arm on her shoulder to stand on his toes, and even before she spun around, he realized it was Karin.

“You watch it.”

“I was just trying to get to my room, loser.” She walked away.

He glared after her. Karin used to be okay when they were kids. It was only in the last couple of years she’d turned annoying. Sakura- her roommate- was annoying too but, almost the exact opposite of Karin, she’d gotten better lately.

The main corridor emptied out quickly. Still no sign of Sasuke. Naruto decided to run along to where his and Sasuke’s room was, on the other side of the building, past the reception and Tsunade’s office but not quite as far as the staffroom. He’d probably catch him along the way.

As he made his way past the reception, however- still deserted, Shizune must not have gotten back to her desk yet- he noticed a figure loitering in the shadows by the corner of Tsunade’s office.

“Kakashi?”

Kakashi started and opened one eye.

Naruto gulped. Kakashi hadn’t worked there for very long and, so far, Naruto hadn’t quite figured out if he was one of the workers that were going to be very strict or one that he could get around and have fun with.

“Hm? Naruto?”

“Yeah”, Naruto swallowed again and licked his lips. “I… Erm, I was just heading back to my room. It’s this way.”

“I know. It’s the one by the staffroom, isn’t it?

“Yeah.”

There was a moment of silence.

“They put me there because I keep leaving my room at night.”

Kakashi responded as though he hadn’t heard. “I think Sasuke has already gone back. I saw him go past a minute ago.” He coughed and closed his eye again.

Naruto rocked on his heels, clasping his hands behind his back. Now Sasuke was back he probably would want to go straight to bed like usual, and Naruto wanted to stay up a little longer. “Are you waiting to talk to Tsunade?”

Kakashi opened his eye again. “No.”

“But you’re by her office.” Naruto cocked his head.

“Maybe I just like standing here.”

Naruto scrunched his nose up. “That’s boring. You’re boring.” Kakashi didn’t respond. “You could come to the kitchen with me and get something to eat.”

“You’ve already had dinner. Besides-” Kakashi opened both eyes now, fixing Naruto with a cool gaze, “-shouldn’t you be going to bed?”

Naruto opened his mouth to answer, only to dart back around the corner as the door to the office behind the reception desk opened.

“Kakashi?” He heard Tsunade’s voice. “Did you still want to come in and see our illustrious author?”

“If that’s alright?”

Naruto held a hand over his mouth. The excitement making Kakashi’s voice tremble was possibly the first emotion he’d heard from the man who spoke exclusively in monotone. One of the few things Naruto had managed to learn about him was that he was a huge fan of Jiraiya’s books; he was often reading one as he wandered around the home, somehow managing not to walk into any walls.

“He took the time out of his busy travel schedule to visit us, I’m sure he’d be glad to talk to such a big fan. Just try not to feed his ego too much.”

Jiraiya’s booming voice rang out; “What ego?”

There was a long silence, and Naruto prepared to carry on down the corridor. Perhaps he could make it into the abandoned wing next to it before the nightly patrol came round. But then he’d already explored there dozens of times. And he wouldn’t make it out into the courtyard at night without setting off an intruder alarm; he’d learned that the hard way. Maybe-

“You can join us if you want too, Naruto.”

Naruto gaped up at Tsunade. She was standing at the corner where Kakashi had been loitering, leaning forwards with her hands on her hips to see him.

“Tsunade, I- wait, really?”

“For a little while.” She smiled. “I know you like talking to Jiraiya when he’s here. I’m sorry he’s not been able to stay too long today. He came later than planned… But since you’re a little older now, and don’t start school again just yet. And you’re clearly not tired-”

Naruto was already darting past her, round the desk, through the storage room, and into the office.

He didn’t get to go into the office very often. Most of Tsunade’s scolding, unless it was something serious, was carried out in the corridor or small staff break room by the common room. But he did like it when he got to go in. It smelled like wood and leather and other grown-up smells. He traced one finger over the very corner of her desk by the door, but only that near corner. The desk itself was cluttered with photos, as were the walls. When he had been in there before Tsunade had pointed them out, usually in the form of asking him if he thought so-and-so in picture number four would be happy about the fact that he had put a huge dent in the wall. (The answer was no, apparently, although to be fair the time he had said yes was when she had pointed to an image of Jiraiya, asking if he would be happy about Naruto’s plate-smashing ways, and he was still sure he was right on that one.)

There were the original founders of the orphanage, the Senju brothers, nestled in between a pot full of pens and a stack of papers. One of them- Naruto thought the one with darker hair, although he couldn’t remember exactly- had been the one to convert the old family estate into a home for children with nowhere to go. Lining the edge of the desk that faced out to the rest of the office, as though judging its visitors, were a series of black and white images, consisting of the first few members of staff and children who had lived there, among members of Tsunade’s family. The biggest photo, hanging on the wall right above Tsunade’s desk, was a color photo of Jiraiya and Tsunade. They were younger but it was unmistakably them. Next to them were three others; a sort of odd-looking thin man standing next to Jiraiya, another with a long ponytail and handsome features with his arm around Tsunade, and a young boy sticking his tongue out at the camera in front of Jiraiya. Naruto’s eyes ranged over the walls, following the development of the stills as they grew clearer and brighter. More familiar faces revealed themselves to him until he landed on a much more formal picture taken at the front of the entrance to the home, the older Tsunade he was used to standing with Shizune, a couple of workers who had since left, and a couple of board members Naruto vaguely recognized from previous visits.

Naruto frowned. There was also a new picture on the wall, this one opposite Tsunade’s desk, except it wasn’t like the others. This one was a photo of a man’s head and shoulders. It was taped to the wooden beam that hung low there and was all crumpled and marked, cracks spreading like spiderwebs across the shiny surface.

“Naruto? Are you okay?”, Tsunade asked from behind him, and Naruto stepped forward out of the doorway.

It was warm in the office. Jiraiya was also admiring the pictures from where he stood by the desk. Naruto couldn’t see Kakashi and wondered if he’d gone back out the main office door, the one that led out onto the corridor.

Jiraiya met Naruto’s gaze and grinned, rapping his fingers against one of the frames. “Haven’t changed at all, have I, kid?”

“Except for a few pounds gained here and there”, said Tsunade, and Jiraiya scoffed at her. “Otherwise unfortunately not.”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t had time to gain weight, I’ve been wandering the Earth. Doing important research. Living frugally.”

“You mean sitting in a café and telling the cute waitress you’ll name a character after her.”

A slight glimmer of something light shifting was the only thing that alerted Naruto to the fact that Kakashi was still present. His pale skin stood out against the dark olive walls, and half of his face was visible over the paper mask he always wore.

Feeling, oddly, a little nervous as the two elder adults continued to talk back and forth, Naruto shuffled across to stand near him. Kakashi didn’t seem to notice.

“-and he’d agree with me and you know it”, Tsunade was saying to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya snorted. “Bullshit.”

“Hey.” Tsunade jerked her head in Naruto’s direction. Kakashi started, seeming to notice the child at his side for the first time.

“Ah, I’m sure he’s heard worse than that. Probably said worse than that, right, Naruto?” He gave a conspiratorial wink.

Naruto smiled. “Sure have”, he proclaimed, unsure of what exactly he was agreeing with.

Exhaling, Tsunade turned back to Jiraiya. “Unfortunately, he probably has.”

A small lull descended over the office. Naruto began toeing the carpet at his feet, scuffing it a little.

Apparently, Kakashi took it as his moment to strike.

Stepping forward, he began, semi-casually; “Jiraiya, I read your last book, and-”

Jiraiya seemed a little baffled at Kakashi suddenly speaking up but grinned nonetheless. “Like it, did you?”

“It was okay. I wouldn’t have had… _That ending_ happen quite as suddenly as it did, but it’s a perfect setup for a sequel.”

Jiraiya let out a hearty peal of laughter. “Now this is a man who gets it!”

Kakashi’s eyes began to shine a little now. Naruto was once more forced to hold back his own laughter.

“I was just wondering though, what inspired you to create that…” Naruto tuned out the rest of what Kakashi was saying, eyes darting around the office. It looked as though Tsunade was doing the same thing.

Naruto meandered around the large desk to the door by the corridor, coming to Tsunade’s side and staring at the same photo she had fixated on. Jiraiya was right: He hadn’t changed too much- a few more lines around the face yet his frame remained as dominating in the room they were in as it was in the picture. However, looking between them, the Tsunade he knew was much duller and more haggard than the young lady captured there in a fleeting scene.

He opened his mouth to ask Tsunade who the other people were in the picture, only to pause at a sound outside the door.

Naruto tilted his head, straining to listen. He glanced at Tsunade but she didn’t seem to have heard; she was still gazing fixedly at the photo.

There it was again.

Giggling.

And he was sure he knew who that was.

“Tsunade”, he said, “I’m going to bed now.”

“Oh.” Tsunade jumped and her response seemed automatic. “Okay. Goodnight, Naruto. Straight back to your room, remember. I’ll be checking.”

“Yes, Tsunade. Goodnight!” Naruto waved and grinned at Jiraiya and Kakashi.

Jiraiya mirrored him enthusiastically. Kakashi gave a brief handwave without looking away from Jiraiya.

Naruto managed to hold his laughter in all through leaving the room, grabbing hold of Sakura’s arm, miming at her to keep quiet, and racing along to Sakura’s room. Once the door was closed behind them, they both promptly released it in a single burst.

Naruto collapsed on his back, arms and legs flung out like a starfish, enjoying the sound of his own laughter, and Sakura’s alongside it. She dropped down next to him and nudged him to sit up.

They knelt facing each other on the carpet in between the two beds.

“You should have seen Kakashi’s face!”

“He sounded like he was in love with Jiraiya or something”, Sakura giggled.

“Oh my god, can you imagine that?”

The bathroom door was yanked open and Karin’s face appeared. “Can you two keep quiet? He shouldn’t even be here.”

“Just go shower already, Karin, you stink”, Sakura snapped back.

The door slammed shut again.

Sakura's face went from glaring to smiling and back to openly grinning as she again met Naruto’s eyes. Naruto was surprised how quickly the two of them had gone from animosity, when Sakura first arrived just over a year ago, to a kind of friendship. It helped that she didn’t get along with Karin any better than Naruto did. And, he frowned at the thought, she had been hanging around his room more often the last couple of months. Not for him, though.

“How was Jiraiya?”, Sakura prompted. “Did you find anything out about why he hasn’t been around? You said it’s been nearly two years, right?”

“Yeah- well, more like a year and a half… He used to visit all the time!”

“He’s not as funny as you said.”

Naruto glared. “What? Yeah, he is! You just didn’t get to see him much!”

Sakura nudged him. “So? Come on! What did they say? In Tsunade's office?”

“How long were you listening?”

“Only about a minute.”

  
“You heard pretty much everything then.” Naruto shrugged and Sakura leaned back in disappointment. “Tsunade and Jiraiya argued a bit, but that’s normal for them.”

“And then Kakashi-” They both snickered. Naruto could hear the grating sound of Karin brushing her teeth in the bathroom and tried to ignore it.

“I don’t get why he likes those books. Jiraiya’s story today wasn’t that interesting. Or- he stopped before the interesting parts.” Sakura giggled again.

But Naruto just sighed. “Yeah. That was actually the first time he read to us from one of them. He used to just make stories up. I liked those better.”

“Maybe he just stopped being a good writer.”

“Maybe”, Naruto admitted. “I used to wait…” He trailed away, then began again. “Jiraiya didn’t come all the time. Sometimes he would visit nearly every day, then other times he wouldn’t come for nearly a year. I remember sitting in reception when he was meant to be coming, waiting…”

He looked at Sakura. She was staring back at him with mild disdain and something like pity. The stupid red bow on top of her head was sticking straight up at the ceiling.

“Whatever”, he snapped. “You wouldn’t get it.”

The bathroom door slammed open and Karin slunk in, fluffy blue pajamas contrasting with her dark copper hair.

“Wouldn’t get what? Why are you still here?”

Before Naruto could retort, there was a sharp knock on the door.

Sakura got up and opened the door. Even before he saw who it was, Naruto sighed wearily. It was time to go back.

Kurenai stood in the hallway. When she saw Naruto, still knelt on the floor, she folded her arms across her chest.

“I know, I’m out of bed”, Naruto muttered. “I’ll go back now.”

“You should have been in bed after Tsunade told you”, Kurenai said. She didn’t sound too angry; just disapproving and a little exasperated.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He stood up.

“Okay. Well, head straight back to your room now. You don’t have to go to sleep right away, I just need to know you’re in there.”

Karin sneered. “Yeah, tell your boyfriend to leave, big forehead.”

Naruto saw Sakura balling her fists while she railed in anger in Karin’s direction. She’d had to see a therapist to deal with her anger the first couple of months there, Naruto knew, and she had been getting better, but Karin clearly wasn’t making it easy for her.

Trying to prevent a fight, Naruto raised his arms, stepping awkwardly between the two girls and muttering; “I’m going. Goodnight.”

He backed away to the door, both Sakura and Karin focusing their anger on him. When he reached the opening, he turned and ran.

Once back in his own room, Naruto shut the door and debated going to shower before deciding against it. A wave of tiredness had suddenly washed over him and he wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep.

Sasuke must not have showered either: The lights were still on when Naruto entered but he was already in bed, curled in to face the wall. That was okay. Sasuke got up before Naruto most days anyway, so there was rarely a fight for the bathroom. Naruto wasn’t even sure what a fight with Sasuke would be like.

He brushed his teeth, splashed his face, and climbed into bed.

“Hey, Sasuke?”

No answer.

“Are you awake?”

Again, no answer.

Naruto rolled over and sighed, then scooted down to the end of the bed. His one was closest to the door and the light switch.

As soon as the room went dark, he shuffled back down and drew the covers up around him, screwing his eyes shut. It wasn’t so much that he minded the dark. It was just that he never could sleep straight away, so he liked to keep his lamp on (the cool one that made a spiral pattern on the ceiling; Iruka bought it for him) and would normally turn it out when he finally felt himself drifting to sleep. He did forget now and then, but not all the time. Still, it had been one of the things Sasuke had objected to when he first arrived: He liked to sleep in total darkness.

“Naruto?”

“Sasuke?” Naruto opened his eyes again, then regretted it and closed them.

“Oh.”

“Did I wake you up? Sorry.”

Naruto could tell from Sasuke’s breathing that he was wide awake. He tried again.

“Did you like Jiraiya’s story?”

“Not really.” Sasuke’s voice was flat. “It was cliché.”

“Yeah.” Naruto fidgeted in his bed a little, trying to get comfortable. “But I like the way he tells them.”

“He is a good storyteller”, the other boy conceded, and Naruto smiled.

“So, do you think you like it here? It’s really not so bad. We do fun stuff like that sometimes.”

“I don’t have to like it. I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Really?”, Naruto asked. That did happen occasionally. Sometimes someone would come and stay for a few months, and then leave again, reunited with some distant relative or taken to a foster family. “Where to?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want you to come and find me after I leave. I don’t want to see you again after this.”

Naruto glared at the ceiling and tried not to sit up and yell. “You’d see me at school anyway.”

“Maybe I’m moving somewhere else.”

“Oh yeah? With who?”

“My brother.”

“You have a brother? Is he at another home?”

“No, he’s older. And he’s going to come and get me soon. I won’t have to stay here much longer.”

Naruto tried to swallow his jealousy. He’d always wanted a brother. He used to daydream- sometimes he still did- about finding out he had an older brother, or maybe an uncle. He was rich. Somehow the social services hadn’t been able to find him when Naruto’s parents died, but now he was back and looking for Naruto. He would take Naruto away from the home, but he could come back to visit Iruka and Tsunade and Lee and Konohamaru and the other people he liked here and take them out on cool trips. They’d go to ramen places for dinner and he would tell Naruto stories about his parents and how much he was like them. They would play board games together, ones that didn’t have pieces missing where the really small kids had hidden or chewed them. And Naruto could go to bed whenever he wanted.

Maybe Sasuke’s brother was rich. He didn’t think Sasuke would come back to take anyone out on trips, though.

He realized the room had been quiet for a long time.

“Goodnight Sasuke”, he finally said, rolling onto his side. Sasuke didn’t reply.

*

The home itself sat at the end of a long drive, which was flanked on either side by fields. One side was carefully cropped grass; that was where they played games with the workers in the summer, usually baseball and badminton. This previous summer Guy had tried to do a tai chi class in the morning, but the only one who regularly attended was, of course, Rock Lee.

On the other side was what the little kids called The Forest. They weren’t allowed there. Neither were the older kids, really, which was exactly why Naruto and Sakura went. It was simply a small copse running the edge of the lawn, from the gate to the far edge of the grounds and stretching further forward in one corner so that it appeared to be creeping in towards the house. In that corner sat a cluster of ancient oaks that Naruto liked in particular. He and Sakura had trampled down the overgrown blades of grass and bushes around the base at one of them, neatly tucked in the back. They liked to sit there when the weather was nice. And when the weather was bad, they built a den with some old blankets for cover and would take a big catalog and circle items they would have in their future homes- or, as Naruto had secretly hoped for, a single huge house they could share- no matter what the cost because by the time they were like nineteen they would sure be rich.

Now Naruto dug his fingers into the bark, trying to get find grooves to get a grip. Climbing these wasn’t as easy as when he was younger, he thought.

As he hoisted himself up over the first few low branches he realized the likely reason. Duh, he was heavier now.

He planted one foot against a nearby branch and reached up for the next one. It was a little further away and he considered trying to reach around the thick trunk for another branch as a sort of intermediate stepping stone.

His fingers struck flesh and he stopped.

“Hey! Naruto! That was my leg!”

Looking up, he spotted Sakura’s pointed chin and light hair hanging down above him as she peered over. How did she get higher than him?

“I think I need to come round there to get higher”, he told her, trying not to let the shallowness of his breathing come through in his voice.

“Hm. We could just stop here. This branch I’m on is really thick.”

“Okay. Make room for me.”

He gave her some time to shuffle along, then, still clutching at the trunk, leaned around to catch a view of the one she was talking about.

It was pretty thick, and long too. Perfect for sitting on. It dipped down a little in the middle, then suddenly thinned out to a tiny point, but there was enough room for probably half the home kids to sit on the thick part before the dip.

Sakura inched her way along towards the middle, palms flat on the branch and feet swinging in the breeze.

“Okay. I’m coming up now.” Naruto took a deep breath and willed himself not to look down. It wasn’t that he was afraid of heights; he was just sure that if he jinxed himself in looking down he wouldn’t be able to make the next jump.

His right foot stretched across and up a little to reach a small hole in the tree. The second his foot was securely in, he didn’t waste time in digging his fingertips into the bark and shifting all of his weight across, moving his left foot to balance precariously next to the right one. His right hand moved to grab the branch, now at his waist. It was easy enough to turn and seat himself on the branch.

When he sat down, he let out a long breath and looked down. They were maybe about ten feet up, nowhere near as high as they had gone before, but the wind was unusually fierce among the normally impenetrable layer of leaves today.

Naruto realized Sakura was watching him with a smile on her face. He raised his eyebrows at her.

“What?”

“I beat you.”

“No! I let you climb ahead of me!”

“Did not”, she replied, sticking her tongue out and swinging her legs more enthusiastically than before.

In a last-ditch attempt, Naruto told her; “You only got up here quicker because of the way the branches are. There were more on that side.”

Sakura snorted, yet admitted; “Okay, it was a little easier around here. I can still climb better than you can though.” She tilted her face up even though there were no spaces above them for the sun to break through the leaves, and closed her eyes. Naruto watched her.

She looked prettier than usual among the weak, green-filtered light. Or perhaps it was the fact she had tilted her head up so the perspective balanced out her large forehead with the rest of her face.

Eventually, fed up with her silence, Naruto asked; “So… Are you ready to go back to school tomorrow?”

She opened her eyes to frown at him and he looked away, hoping she didn’t see him staring and somehow know what he had been thinking.

Sakura shrugged. “Sort of.” She liked school, Naruto knew, something else about her he didn’t quite get. He’d always hated it. Although he had to admit, middle school was better than it had been when he first started. Now he had a few friends.

He thought of Shikamaru, his best friend. Of Chouji, always so happy to see him. Of Kiba, always ready for fun. Something in his chest panged. He’d forgotten how much he missed them.

“I’m looking forward to seeing my friends. I’ve barely seen them all break. Are you looking forward to seeing Ino?” Ino was a friend of Shikamaru and Chouji’s who usually hung around with them. Naruto didn’t mind her too much, so he had been glad when she immediately befriended Sakura upon her arrival at their school. At first. Nowadays it seemed the two of them spent most of their time bickering over nonsense that any sensible person wouldn’t care less about.

“I guess so. It has been boring this break, hasn’t it? Compared to last year.”

“They have been more strict this year. It’s all the new staff.”

“I feel like some of them have been watching me like hawks. Or vultures.” Sakura shuddered.

“Ibiki is the worst. He’s always hanging out in the courtyard and-”

“-watching the hallways, yeah.” She frowned. “Hey, Ibiki isn’t new. He’s been here since before I came.”

“I know, but he’s still annoying”, said Naruto. “Kakashi, too. That guy can move quietly.”

“True.” Sakura almost seemed to have stopped listening, just looking out over the trees at the home.

“Having a roommate has been weird, too. I forgot I can’t just be naked in my room anymore.”

She smiled but otherwise did not respond.

He tried again. “Sasuke actually spoke to me last night.”

That got her attention. Sakura’s head snapped towards him. “What did he say?”

“Not much. I think he’s leaving here, soon.”

“Oh.” Sakura’s face fell momentarily. When she recovered, she flicked her hair. “Karin has a huge crush on him. She thinks he’s hot.”

Naruto stared at her, wrinkling his nose. She had followed Sasuke around for two weeks when he first arrived. The sound of Sasuke slamming the door in her face until Tsunade told him to stop or he’d break the jamb, still haunted him. “You don’t?”

“Well… He’s okay.” But her face was red.

“Pft.” Naruto snorted, standing up and stretching. He wasn’t quite sure why he was snorting. “Pft.” He began wandering along the branch, slowing down as it began to taper and thin beneath his feet.

“Naruto!” Sakura balled her fists, turning even redder now. “Don’t be stupid! Sit down!”

“Pft. I’m fine.” But even as he spoke he wobbled and flung both arms out to balance himself.

It didn’t work. His body continued to flail beyond his control.

“Naruto!”

Instinctively, he crouched down, reaching back and gripping the coarse bark with one hand to steady himself.

When his heart stopped racing, he gave Sakura a triumphant smile.

She crossed her arms, nonchalant all of a sudden. “Be careful. Or they’ll call Dr. Death again.”

Naruto winced. Nobody liked Dr. Death. He was the doctor that usually came out to the home when one of them was ill or injured, and he was, in a word, creepy. Although Naruto knew that when kids left the home it was usually because they were going to a new home or to live with a family, the younger kids always passed around tales that it was Dr. Death that had stolen them away. Naruto didn’t believe those stories anymore.

Still, the last time he’d seen Dr. Death- a few months ago when he fell down the stairs and Iruka thought he had a concussion- he hadn’t been able to help holding his breath as a cold, clammy hand touched his head and a bony face looked into his eyes like he was cutting a window into Naruto’s soul.

Naruto shuddered, once more standing up on the branch and making his way back to where Sakura sat to lean against the trunk. “That guy gives me the creeps.”

“Hm. I heard he’s like, a kidnapper, or something.”

“Oh, yeah. He took the girl who used to live in your room.” He peered down at her earnestly.

“Hey! No, he did not!”

“He did! He took her away and we never saw her again.”

Sakura thumped Naruto’s ankle with one fist and he clutched at the tree trunk.

“Watch it, Sakura!”

“Hey! What are you two doing?”

They both froze and looked down.

Konohamaru. Of course, he’d followed them. He had a blue blanket tied around his neck and was holding it out behind him with both hands like he was playing at being Superman.

Naruto breathed a sigh and crouched down.

“We’re talking. You shouldn’t be over here.”

“Neither should you.”

“Tsunade said we could”, Naruto lied through his teeth.

Konohamaru tilted his head. “So, I should be allowed too.”

“No, Konohamaru. You’re too little.”

“You just don’t want me talking to your _girlfriend_.”

Naruto ignored the angry red cloud that seemed to form around Sakura in the corner of his eye.

“She’s not my girlfriend, Konhamaru, go away. We’ll play later.”

Konohamaru glared and turned around with a dramatic flip of his blanket, stomping away. His feet thudded loudly against the dry earth. “You never want to play anymore.”

“Later!”, Naruto called after him. As he leaned over to yell, he nearly overbalanced again and plonked down firmly on his butt as Sakura gripped his jacket.

“Hey!”

“What? Did you want to fall?”

Instead of responding, Naruto focused on ripping some leaves from a nearby twig and pulling them apart along the leafstalk.

He decided it was time to show off his tree climbing skills again, getting to his feet and walking back and forth along the branch, neatly stepping over where Sakura sat. He was careful to stay where it was thicker than his feet were wide.

A soft breeze blew past his arms and up there, with the green leaves blanketing him from the sun, he felt a cool chill work its way into his bones. It wasn’t unpleasant, merely calming.

He turned back to Sakura, eyes and mouth wide open in excitement, sucking in the fresh air through his teeth, and saw her grinning back up at him with bright, clear eyes. Oh. That was why he had liked her, in the beginning; the moments they put aside their arguing and the air felt clear and peaceful around them, and they shared their happiness.

“Come on”, he said. “Stand up.”

Her face fell a little. “I don’t know…”

“I’ll help you, don’t worry!”

Naruto held his hand out. Sakura bit her lip for a long moment, then he watched the determination dawning on her features. “Okay.”

She gripped the branch she sat on with both hands and drew her knees up alongside her body, a little awkwardly thanks to her skirt. She paused and squinted up at him. “But only if you promise you won’t shake the branch or push me or-”

“I promise, I promise!”

Sakura nodded.

“Right… Shuffle back along the trunk to push yourself up if you want. That might help, you know.”

She did as he advised, moving her way down to the base of where the branch sprouted off of the tree. When she got there, she put her palms flat against the trunk and then walked them up, leaning her weight against it as she drew her feet up and then straightened her knees. She gave Naruto a delighted smile, before frowning and flashing him her left palm; there was a sticky orange stain on it. The two of them made faces at each other as Sakura wiped it off on the tree.

“Great! Now come over here!” Naruto beckoned her with a frantic wave of his hand.

Sakura wobbled her way over until she could grab a hold of Naruto’s arm. After a moment she let go, standing with her hands outstretched slightly on either side of her body.

“I can see the house!”, she said, excited, and Naruto followed her gaze. Through the trees sprawling one-story estate was laid out before them. Even from that distance, it was labyrinthine, a patchwork of renovations and extensions.

“It’s cool, right?” He grinned at her.

She smiled back and opened her mouth.

“Naruto! Sakura!”

The sound made Sakura jump, mouth still open. She wobbled a little but kept her feet planted firmly, and Naruto grabbed her sleeve, holding on until she was stable. His own heart was pounding.

The two of them looked at each other and Naruto slowly began to sink down on his haunches, still holding onto Sakura, who copied him. They lowered themselves onto the branch until they were seated, legs dangling below them. Finally, they peered down through the leaves.

Ebisu was stood with his hands on his hips, his head a few feet below them. Konohamaru stood next to him.

“Come down, you two. Now.”

They shuffled their way back along the branch and began their steady descent, Sakura leading the way and retracing the path she had used to climb up and Naruto following in her stead.

Ebisu’s hands were still on his hips as they reached the ground. Naruto didn’t meet his eyes. He moved over to stand near Konohamaru, muttering; “Snitch.”

“No”, Konohamaru protested, “Ebisu caught me coming back to the house. He was looking for you.”

“Looking for me?” Naruto looked at Ebisu hopefully, then winced under the man’s glare as the lecture began.

“Nobody had seen you for a while, Naruto. You know you can’t come out here, you’ve been told that multiple times. So why are you here? Well?”

Naruto didn’t answer.

“It’s dangerous out here. Even just now, you nearly fell.”

“Because you surprised us”, Naruto muttered again.

Ebisu didn’t notice. “And Sakura! I thought you might have known better than that, but apparently not.”

Naruto didn’t dare sneak a glance at her face to see how she was reacting to being told off.

“I’m not saying this to be mean. A fall like that can kill you.”

“Sorry, Ebisu”, Sakura said quietly.

Naruto hung his head. “Yeah, sorry.”

“Alright. Well. Let’s get you inside.”

Naruto and Sakura kicked at the grass, miserably trudging side by side to the house in silence. Ebisu was always ruining their fun. He was easily one of the most annoying workers there. Him and the dumb sunglasses he always wore, that made him look like more of an idiot than he already was. Naruto expected this kind of thing from him, but not from Konohamaru.

In order to make sure Konohamaru knew of his displeasure, Naruto turned and glared at him as they approached the building.

Konohamaru stuck his tongue out.

Usually, Naruto would do the same back, but now he simply continued to glare.

He didn’t say goodbye to Sakura when they got back to the reception and slipped their shoes off. Instead, they each turned towards their own rooms. Konohamaru hovered in between the two of them for a moment before following Sakura, careful to keep a few feet behind her as he trailed along, presumably, to his own room.

Sasuke wasn’t there when Naruto returned to his room. Oddly, it felt emptier with Sasuke’s stuff there than it had before he’d had a roommate.

He decided he might take a nap. Not bothering to shrug out of his clothes, Naruto slipped under the blankets and rolled onto his right, facing the same blank beige wall.

Only a few minutes had passed when there came the sound of someone knocking on the door. Maybe Sakura had come back to talk.

“Come in”, he called, and when silence was his only response he called again, louder; “You can come in!”

He rolled onto his back and sat up as the door swung open.

Iruka’s head poked around the door, seemingly confused at the lack of occupants in the room, and then his eyes settled on Naruto. He made his way into the center of the room, leaving the door open.

“Oh. It’s you.”

In truth, Naruto was glad to see Iruka and his wild brown hair that stuck out in every direction from his ponytail. It looked soft, like cotton. Iruka's eyes usually matched that softness. Today they were hard as stone.

“Yeah. It’s me.” Iruka crossed his arms. “Ebisu told us about your tree climbing, Naruto. Do you have a death wish?”

Naruto folded his own arms, resting them on top of his blankets and pouting at the worker. “Of course not. I’ve already heard all of this from Ebisu.”

“And Tsunade, and Shizune, and me. But you clearly need to hear it again since it didn’t sink in all of those other times.”

Naruto, embarrassingly, felt tears begin to prick at his eyes. He continued to glare at the wall. “It wasn’t just me this time! Sakura was there too! And Konohamaru! He didn’t climb up, but he was going to!”

“That’s not the point. You need to be responsible for your own actions. And those actions today could have gotten you seriously hurt, or worse. Please, Naruto, you need to understand that these rules that we have are for your safety.”

There was an increasing hint of desperation in Iruka’s voice that, oddly, made Naruto want to laugh uncontrollably, just to spite him. He swallowed it down. “Okay.” His voice came out squeaky like he was still a little kid. “I won’t do it again. I promise.”

Iruka let out a long exhale. Naruto dared to look at him again. His eyes were softer now, the eyes Naruto was used to.

The man took a step closer and ruffled his hair. Naruto thought he might say something else about the climbing, however when he spoke it was only to tell him that dinner would be ready in half an hour.

“I’m going home soon, so before I go-” Iruka stepped back towards the door, “-good luck at school tomorrow. And try not to get into too much trouble this year.”

Naruto blinked up at him, holding his bedsheets to his stomach. “I won’t. I promise.”

Iruka’s expression became conflicted. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else. In the end, he simply sighed and left Naruto alone, closing the door behind him.

*

Any excitement that Sakura had felt the previous night about returning to school had long since dissipated by the time she found herself forcing her own body to keep trudging along the pavement in between Naruto and Lee. Instead, she was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open. Turning the corner onto the long street towards the school only increased the weird impending sense of doom she had been carrying since the night before. She had had nightmares about something. She couldn’t remember what.

It appeared Naruto was feeling the same; for once he was mercifully silent, dragging his heels.

The same mood didn’t seem to be affecting Rock Lee, however.

Sakura kept her head down, watching the cracks in the pavement roll past as they walked, letting Lee’s words pass over her head.

“-and I’m especially excited to see my history teacher because- Oh look, there’s my friend! I have to go! Have a good day!”

The gust of wind caused by Lee sprinting off made Sakura look up. The boy was waving back at them as he ran, his long dark braid bouncing in between his shoulders and loose green trousers flapping in the morning breeze.

She and Naruto exchanged a look.

Lee slowed to a halt a dozen yards in front of them, stopping in front of a girl Sakura recognized as Tenten. Lee’s friend was holding one hand over her eyes, blocking the sun, and she said something to Lee before waving enthusiastically at Naruto and Sakura.

Sakura waved back. She liked Tenten. She was funny. A bit goofy, but then she was Lee’s friend, so that was to be expected.

The two older students turned inside the school gates.

They paced the same route that Lee and Tenten had taken, albeit at a much slower speed. Sakura tried to memorize the feeling of the sun on their shoulders, knowing that it would soon be snatched from her. The closer they got, the more they dawdled.

Naruto had perked up, at least; staring up and closing his eyes, apparently also enjoying the warmth. Sakura imagined him tripping over from not looking where he was going and chuckled to herself.

“What?”, he asked, staring at her in suspicion.

“Nothing.”

Another figure sprinted into her line of sight and approached rapidly. His loose clothes seemed to bounce independently of his body as he ran, and his messy brown hair stuck up at all angles. He jumped around Naruto in a circle before falling in step with him.

“Hey! Naruto! How are you doing this morning? Excited to be back?”

It made sense that Kiba and Naruto were friends, Sakura thought. They were the two kids in their class that always got into trouble and couldn’t seem to stop talking. Even if they did get into trouble for occasionally fighting each other. She always asked Naruto why and he just told her she should understand since she was always fighting Ino. But her fights with Ino were different; they actually hated each other when they fought, and Sakura would often wallow in anger for days afterward. Kiba and Naruto seemed to enjoy their fights. Boys were weird.

She didn’t pay too much attention to their conversation. Kiba was Naruto’s friend, not hers. He never really spoke to her that much. She had originally been a little offended by that however, Ino had pointed out that Sakura never made an effort to speak to him, either, and she was maybe a little bit right.

They carried on walking, Kiba hooking his fingers through the snaps of his backpack in an unconscious imitation of Naruto. Ahead of them, just inside the school gates, was a long pathway leading up to the distant wooden buildings. On either side were small green hills where their schoolmates loitered in groups, enjoying the early Summer sun.

Closer to the buildings they spotted, as usual, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji sat at a wooden picnic table.

Chouji smiled at them as they approached. Shikamaru merely gave a lazy hand wave in their direction, barely lifting his head from his arms. His wild light brown hair, standing straight up in its usual ponytail, was almost touching In’s folded arms across the table.

As they drew closer Ino swiveled to look at them and then gawked at Sakura.

“I read that pink hair is last season. Actually, probably a few seasons ago.”

Sakura turned red. Ino knew how much she had been wanting to dye her hair pink! She crossed her arms. “Shut up, Ino, I don’t care. I like my hair like this.”

“But it’s so short. It’d look good if you grew it longer, like mine. And maybe don’t wear a pink jacket, you’ll blend all together.” Ino hummed. “At least it’ll distract people from your forehead.”

It had taken long enough to convince Tsunade to let her dye her hair, and she’d only allowed the bright pink because she knew it would fade to a paler tone by the time school began. Not that that was likely to save her from the wrath of the school authorities.

Although it would be interesting to see how the wrath of the school authorities matched up to the wrath of Tsunade.

When she sat down next to Ino, Sakura took the time to make sure she bumped her shoulder with her elbow. “Whatever. You’re just jealous your parents won’t let you dye your hair.”

“I don’t need to dye it, it’s already so pretty.”

Sakura smiled to herself when Naruto snorted. Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji did stand out from the crowd, especially when they were together; their parents had all come from abroad, and their foreign features were strange. Naruto didn’t seem to care as much as other people, though, with his blond hair and blue eyes. He said he figured he must have European blood or something. And he wasn’t impressed by Ino flaunting her own blonde hair.

Her housemate flopped down next to Shikamaru, nearly on top of him, and Shikamaru groaned and shoved him back. Chouji moved up to make room for the both of them. Kiba sat opposite Naruto, on Ino’s other side, grumbling about having to sit next to the girls.

“Oh, Sakura, we knew you were coming. Wanna know how?”, asked Ino.

Sakura blinked at her. “How?”

Chouji, around a mouthful of candy, said; “We saw your friend.”

“Yeah, the green boy. We saw him run in with that girl and knew you had to be coming soon.” Ino paused. “Why wasn’t Sasuke with you?”

“He said he wanted to walk alone.”

Naruto snorted again. When he spoke it was with a mockingly deep intonation; “Tch. I’d rather be alone with my thoughts than listen to you three chattering pointlessly.”

Kiba roared with laughter and reached over to ruffle Naruto’s hair. Leaning over and blocking Sakura’s path was probably a good idea because that way she couldn’t reach Naruto to hit him. She stayed in her seat, clenching her fists in irritation at Naruto’s childishness.

“No!”, Naruto protested, still in his ‘Sasuke’ voice. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You need to stick your hair up like him! Just- no-!”

A scuffle broke out across the table.

“Hey!” Sakura finally jumped to her feet, knocking the backs of her knees uncomfortably against the wooden bench. She leaned over to separate them, then paused when something caught her eye.

Sasuke was right there leaning against the nearby school building, watching with clear contempt in his eyes. _How long has he been there?_

Without another moment’s hesitation, she grabbed the back of Kiba’s shirt and yanked him back with one hand, shoving Naruto with the other. Ino scooted back out of the way without a murmur.

“Ow, Sakura!”, Naruto protested.

Kiba glared, rubbing at the back of his neck. “What the hell are you doing?”

She hissed at them both; “Shut up!”

The entire table followed her gaze as she jerked her head in Sasuke’s direction.

“Oh!” Ino tried to wave and catch his attention.

Sakura groaned internally. _Why did Ino have to do that? He clearly doesn’t want to hang out with us._

She clutched Ino’s hand, preventing her from waving, only to roll her eyes when she saw that Naruto was also waving furiously in Sasuke’s direction.

Sasuke merely looked at them and walked on.

She slumped back down in her former spot, releasing her grip on Ino’s hand.

“We should have just played it cool”, Sakura whispered. She looked across the table at Naruto. “He looked sad. Didn’t you think? I thought I saw it in his eyes.”

Shikamaru snorted and muttered something she didn’t catch. Naruto nudged his friend. Chouji carried on munching his chips as usual.

When the bell sounded Naruto, Kiba and Sakura all immediately grabbed their things and leaped to their feet, followed by Ino and Chouji. Shikamaru held out both hands and Chouji and Naruto each gripped one of his wrists and pulled him up.

Ino made a noise. “So lazy.”

Shikamaru apparently didn’t even have the energy to glare at her, dragging his feet on the way to the school buildings.

They made their way inside, Ino and Sakura speed-walking and jostling shoulders as they raced to get to the door first.

Their first class of the day was history. It was in the newest building of the school and so nearly everything was a boring grey or a bleached white, the walls, the tables. Not to mention that there were group tables, like in primary school, no desks. It was like they were trying to bore them.

Sakura and Ino sat together with a couple of other kids in their class, Hinata and Shino, although they didn’t really speak to each other. Hinata and Shino were both kind of weird. Naruto, Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru all sat together at the next four-seat table. Sasuke sat by himself at a small two-seat table behind Sakura. Their class wasn’t really supposed to sit there, but the teacher hadn’t said anything when Sasuke sat down there since nearly every other four-seat table was full.

As usual, Ino immediately found a way to be annoying.

“Stop tapping your pen!” Sakura had hoped she would have left that habit behind with the last term.

“Why?” The blonde increased her pen tapping. “Is it bothering you?”

Sakura gritted her teeth. “Stop it. Now.”

More tapping came from behind her and she whipped around, expecting to find that Naruto had joined in.

Instead, it was Kiba, drumming his fingers on the table. Naruto gave her a wide-eyed look and nudged Kiba, and Sakura bit her lip, regretting her suspicions.

Luckily their teacher arrived before Ino’s tapping drove Sakura completely insane.

She tuned out of the introductory lecture, fidgeting with her hair- their teacher was, indeed, already staring with narrowed eyes at her- and trying not to glance around at Sasuke too much. She wished she could include him. It was lonely sitting by yourself; she knew that well enough. Especially at a new school, where you didn’t know anyone. She knew that, too.

Maybe the next time they had history she could join Sasuke at his table. She wished there was a way to have him sitting at her table, instead of Hinata or Shino. Right now, she would even trade Ino.

Her attention was drawn back to the present when Ino nudged her.

“… You will work in groups of two or three.” The teacher stopped speaking and looked expectantly out across the class. Murmurs filled the silence and a couple of people left their seats.

“What was that?”, Sakura hissed at her friend.

“A group project. We have about a month for it. It’s about local and family history.”

Perfect! Now was her chance!

She stood up and turned towards Sasuke.

“Hey, where are you going?”, Ino demanded.

Sakura ignored her. She wanted to get there first. After just a few steps, she faltered.

Would working one on one with Sasuke really be a good idea? Of course, she wanted to spend time with him and get to know him, but she had tried at home before and it had always been… Awkward. Quiet. Sakura never knew quite what to say around him, and Sasuke never seemed to want to provide conversation. She needed someone who would talk and fill up the silence. Someone…

“Hey, Naruto, let’s work with Sasuke!” She gripped his shoulder.

Kiba, sitting beside him, brushed her hand away like he was dusting Naruto’s shoulder for cobwebs. “No, Naruto, come on, stay with me! You know Chouji and Shikamaru are gonna abandon me for Ino!”

That was probably true: Those three were always together for projects. Their parents ran a restaurant together and as such, they had been raised almost like family. Sakura was a little jealous, not that she would ever admit that to Ino.

Naruto gave him an apologetic smile as he grabbed his things and moved to stand beside Sakura

Confirming Kiba’s fears, Ino dropped into the now empty seat beside him, sticking her tongue out.

Sakura retraced her steps, following her original course to where Sasuke still sat alone with Naruto in tow.

She put her hand on her hips. “Hey. You should let us join you!”

Sasuke simply stared at her with pitch-black eyes.

Well, they were off to a great start.

Mr. Mizuki clapped his hands. “Hurry it up now! Everyone needs to have a group or I’ll be pairing you up myself!”

“Sit down”, Sasuke said.

Sakura firmly placed herself down on the seat next to him.

Naruto protested; “Hey, there’s no seat for me!” He crossed his arms and leaned forward, right into Sakura’s space.

She pushed him back with one hand. “Go get one, then.” God, Naruto was so stupid sometimes.

He looked around, eyes scanning the room. Eventually, he shuffled towards the table Sakura and Ino had vacated, scratching the back of his head.

“Hey, Hinata…”

Sakura swore Hinata squeaked as she turned to look at Naruto.

Naruto shuffled his feet some more. “Do you mind if I take your chair?”

“Oh… No, it’s okay, you can take it.” The girl hurriedly got up and moved round to the other side of the table, opposite Shino. Her cheeks were tinged a delicate pink color.

Naruto shot her one final grin, spun the chair around, and sat at the end of the table, on Sasuke’s other side.

Now that the three of them had all settled down, Sakura gathered her courage to talk. She should try to take charge of the project; it made sense for her to lead them, since she had better grades than Naruto and Sasuke was still new and probably didn’t understand how they did things there, and they would both surely be grateful and respect her for making sure their project was well-managed from the beginning.

Smiling between them both, she asked; “What do you two want to focus on in our project? Any ideas?”

Naruto opened his mouth. Sakura hoped he wasn’t about to say anything too idiotic.

A shadow fell over them.

Their teacher was standing over them. Sakura saw the crow’s feet tightening as his eyes narrowed in a glare, sweeping from Naruto, past Sasuke, and finally settling on Sakura. He took in the girl’s hair for a long moment before his gaze dropped to Sakura’s face.

“So, you three are choosing to work together?”

“Yes, sir”, Sakura answered curiously. She demurely lowered her head, wishing the man would stop staring.

“If you would like, your group may choose to focus your project on the history of your home rather than family history.” He said home the way everyone else said home, like they meant orphanage. Which was what it really was, but Tsunade had told Sakura since she arrived to call it a home. It had been the same in the last place. And the one before that.

Sakura felt a little indignant at his nearly patronizing tone, and she balled her hands on the table, nails digging into her palms to prevent herself from saying something in response. She saw Sasuke staring at her fists, and hid them under the table, her face warm.

Fortunately, Mr. Mizuki had already spotted something else worthy of his attention.

“Groups of two or three, not four.”

“We’re two groups of two”, Kiba protested. “I’m with Chouji.”

“No, Chouji is with us, moron”, Shikamaru sighed. “Go find your own group.”

Kiba crossed his arms. “Well then maybe I want to work by myself!”

“Find a group, Inuzuka”, the teacher hissed.

“… Erm…” Kiba looked around the room, head twisting rapidly from side to side. Everyone was already in a trio, and the few pairs in the room were giving him warning glowers. “…Erm…”

Their teacher, too, glanced round. Sakura watched as his eyes lit on something. A table with two people and three chairs.

“Ah. Inuzuka, you can go with Hyuuga and Aburame. Surely there will be no complaints there?”

Both Hinata and Shino sat completely silently. Hinata looked nervous, Sakura thought, which she got. If she had to work on a serious project with Kiba, she would be nervous too. Shino was unreadable as ever. he had to wear these special tinted glasses to help him with reading and he never took them off. Sakura actually couldn’t remember ever seeing his eyes, not once since she had joined their class.

She heard Kiba mutter something about “the shy girl” and “weird bug boy” as he walked past, slumping into the seat next to Hinata. Hinata started and shuffled away from him in her chair, fiddling with her fringe.

Well, at least Kiba might not complain about Naruto abandoning him anymore, now he had a group.

Sakura turned back to Naruto and Sasuke, ignoring whatever other drama was taking place in their classroom. This was what mattered: Her group.

“Isn’t this exciting? The three of us working together!”

She looked at Sasuke. He was sat with his fingers laced together in front of his face, glaring off to the side.

Hopefully, she turned to Naruto, searching for at least a smile. His earlier eager demeanor had soured, apparently; he gave a noncommittal grunt, eyes narrowed into a glare focused intently on their third group member.

Ah. Now that she thought about the fact that they were actually going to have to do a project together, picking to go with these two might have been a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone who has just read the first chapter through to the end, hello and thank you! This is actually something I have been meaning to post for a little while as I already have the first few chapters written, I just hadn't gotten around to making an account on here. I hope if you enjoyed it that you stick with me as I upload more chapters in the coming weeks. Not all will be as long as this one: Most will be around 5k words, some a little more and some a little less.
> 
> This fic is primarily going to focus on Team 7 (in particular how they go from little bratty kids to hopefully slightly less bratty teenagers) as they grow up and have to deal with adult situations for the first time, but there will be a whole host of other characters from the series who will appear, some just briefly and others who will also become point of view characters.
> 
> Also, just a note, I suck at writing romance, so even though there are going to be some ships in this fic and also in future installments of this series (if I do get around to writing them), the main focus will be on friendships/familial bonds and there won't be very much explicit romance. I already have fairly concrete plans for the future of this series, but if there is anything you want to see, leave a comment. Or if there's anything you don't like, leave a comment. Or even if you just want to chat, leave a comment. :)


	2. Chapter 2

“So, erm…”

They weren’t listening.

“Guys, I…”

It was no use. They couldn’t hear her.

“Excuse me…”

She was going to have to speak up.

“Hey, you two!”

Kiba and Shino finally stopped walking and turned to look at her. Shino’s eyebrows raised above his glasses and she felt herself turning an awful shade of red.

“Er… Hinata?” Kiba scratched the back of his head. “Are you okay?”

She cleared her throat, remembering what it was she had wanted to tell them. “We need to talk about our project. That’s what…” She twisted her hands together. “That’s what we were coming out here to do, yes?”

Crowds of students moved past them, just outside the gates, and she realized they were getting in everyone’s way. Still, there wasn’t really much time to talk, so this place was as good as any. Neji would be there soon.

“Sure, we can talk about it”, said Kiba, and his easy-going smile was reassuring. “We’ve still got a lot of time to work on it, remember, so no need to worry just yet.”

“But getting an idea of what we want to present on would help”, Shino interjected.

“Yes. Exactly.” Hinata took a deep breath. “I was thinking maybe we should all collect some research about our family histories- individually- and then over the next couple of weeks we can meet and decide how we want to arrange it all?”

Shino nodded, the sunlight bouncing off of his glasses so she couldn’t see his eyes. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave it too late, but I’d be happy to ask my parents and then get together to discuss it.”

They turned to Kiba.

With a shrug and a smile, he said; “That’s cool. I’m down with whatever you two want to do. Ah- just give me some time to ask my mom about her history, though. She works a lot and isn’t usually in the mood to talk when she gets home- you know how moms are.”

Hinata looked down at her hands, fingers still interlocked at the knuckle.

In truth, she was happy with her project partners. Kiba had always intimidated her a little, although never because he was mean like some of the other kids, more because of how loud and unpredictable he could be sometimes. And she knew Shino quite well; she used to think he was a bit odd, but then the two of them ended up being partnered together for a lot of projects throughout middle school because they were both so quiet and didn’t approach others to be partners. She still thought he was a little odd, yet his oddities made sense when you got to know him. He wasn’t unpredictable, like Kiba. When he pulled out his little black case, you knew you were in for an insect show.

Still, she couldn’t help wishing she was working with Naruto.

She blushed at the thought.

Unfortunately, Kiba noticed.

“What are you thinking about, huh, Hinata?”, he asked, his voice gently teasing. “Thinking about how you get to work with the two most awesome guys in your class?”

Hinata blushed even harder.

“I know I’m one of the most awesome guys in our class, but I’m not sure about you”, Shino said, deadpan as ever, and Hinata tittered a laugh as Kiba blustered his way through an attempted retort.

Before he could come up with anything coherent, the sound of a car horn interrupted.

Kiba opened his mouth again, only to be met by more honking.

Hinata looked around. Sitting in the car where the honking came from was an angry looking man with a somehow also angry-looking dog.

“Oh! I gotta run!” Kiba scratched the back of his head a second time. He waved as he ran across the grass to the car.

Hinata watched him climb inside. The man- probably Kiba’s dad, she realized- wasted no time hanging around, revving the engine before Kiba was even fully inside and then speeding off down the road.

She turned back to find Shino watching her with a neutral expression.

“I get the feeling”, he said slowly, “that he’s a last-minute kind of guy.”

Hinata giggled, bringing one hand to her mouth. Poor Kiba.

“What are you laughing about?”

Hinata jumped and turned. Neji was stood several feet away, school bag over one shoulder. She opened her mouth, yet nothing came out.

“Never mind. Are you ready to go?”

“Yes. Sorry.” She turned back to Shino and dropped her voice as she spoke. “Sorry. I need to go home, too.” A sudden thought made her brighten up again. “But I’ll see you again soon! We need to work on our project together!”

Shino waved his hand. “Sure. Just let me know when. We’ll make sure Kiba is free, too.” He turned away. “See you tomorrow.”

Hinata watched him take a few steps before turning back to Neji. He was frowning after Shino, who she now saw was walking in the same direction they would be heading. He must live near them.

She wished she could walk with him instead of Neji.

A tight feeling blossomed in the pit of her stomach and she balled her fists. She wanted to like Neji, she really did, it was just so difficult when he didn’t like her! And the worst thing was, she knew it was somehow her fault. Because of her, Neji was always in trouble at home. She wasn’t sure why, but it was true.

“Let’s go, then”, Neji said eventually, waiting for Hinata to catch up to his side before they began their journey home.

It had grown sunnier as the day wore on and Hinata couldn’t wait to get under the shade of the trees over the path ahead. She wished she’d put her hair up; it was thick and dark and clung to her face. Kiba and Shino must have noticed how sweaty she was. They probably thought she was disgusting. She wiped the back of her hand against her forehead and winced at her own grossness when her fringe stuck to her forearm, peeling away from her face and sticking out.

“So, you’re doing a project with that boy?”

Hinata almost jumped out of her skin- which, right now, might have been preferable to remaining in it. Neji rarely spoke to her on their daily commute.

“Yes. Him and another boy. It’s a history project, about family histories.” She hesitated momentarily. Neji wasn’t looking at her still, but he had asked first, so she should probably try to continue the conversation. “Did you have the same project? Last year?”

“Yes”, Neji answered, eyes fixed on some point in the distance. “With Tenten and Rock Lee. You know, the home kid. He’s okay when you get to know him.” He snapped the last sentence out of nowhere, almost defensively.

Instinctively Hinata lowered her eyes to the path and waited for him to continue.

“We failed the project, though.”

“Oh. If you have any information about our family that might help, I’d be grateful to have it.”

“It’s your project.” Neji’s voice didn’t get any louder, simply harsher. The steel edge sliced through her. “I’m not going to do it for you.”

“No, I didn’t mean- I-”

Even before she could begin to explain herself, Neji had pressed on ahead, using his longer legs to his advantage. Hinata had to half-jog to keep up with him, and they made the rest of their way home in their usual silence.

*

It was a little after dinner that Sakura ventured to Naruto and Sasuke’s room. She rarely set foot in that side of the house and it felt strange; cold and empty. On her side was the lounge, the girls’ rooms, and the younger kids’ rooms. Over here it was just Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, and the abandoned wing behind. Knowing that the staff room was there too gave her the eerie feeling of being watched. The staff at the home sometimes seemed to pop up unannounced, out of nowhere, and catch them in whatever schemes they were engaging in.

She was relieved when Naruto called at her to come in straight away and stepped into a dim wooden room, not unlike the one she shared with Karin, only longer rather than wider.

“What do you want, Sakura?” Naruto was lying on his back on the bed nearest the door, playing on his phone.

She hesitated, shutting the door behind her and moving to stand on the faded carpet in the middle of the room.

“I was just thinking… We should start with our project. Since we’ve just started back and don’t have any other homework yet.”

Her eyes darted across to Sasuke. He was also on his phone, only lying on his side. Facing away from them. There was no visible reaction from either of them to her words.

She switched her attention back to Naruto, setting her hands on her hips. “So? What do you think? Any ideas?”

“We’ve got weeks yet, Sakura”, Naruto sighed. He looked up. “Want to watch a movie instead?”

“The kids were in the lounge fighting over what to watch. I think Karin is there too.”

“Ooohhh.”

“Come on, Naruto!” Sakura tried to motivate him. If she got Naruto on her side, it might be easier to convince Sasuke too. “If we make a start on the project now, we won’t have to worry about it later! And this house is so old, I bet there’s loads of interesting stuff that’s happened here!”

“Hmm. Probably.”

“ _Naruto_ ”, she whined and caught Sasuke looking over his shoulder at her. He rolled his eyes.

She looked away quickly, took a breath, and said; “Naruto. Please. Let’s just get it over with.”

“No, Sakura. Another time.” Naruto shrugged and continued to play on his phone; probably looking at dumb memes, like always, Sakura thought irritably.

She sat down on the end of his bed and exhaled. Half the reason she had wanted to get started was to prove to herself that they could actually work together. That this wasn’t going to be a complete disaster. So far, she wasn’t particularly reassured.

Rock Lee’s head poked around the door and into the room. “Are you doing the history project? I had to do that last year! So if you need any help, let me know!” He punched and kicked at the air in the doorway, shaggy unkempt hair swinging free of its usual plait.

Sakura took another deep breath. You could always count on Lee to be enthusiastic, at least. “Thank you, but we still haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet.”

Lee blinked around the room at them, arms falling to his side. “Oh, are all three of you going to be working together?”

“Yes.” Sasuke got up and began to head to the door. Sakura wasn’t sure whether he was going to leave or close it.

Either way, his approach made Lee frantically back up a couple of steps.

“Well, Sasuke”, he continued, “if you want to find out more about the house you should probably know th-”

“Lee, we’re fine”, Sakura cut in when Sasuke gripped the door handle, standing up once more to peer over her project partner’s shoulder. “We’ve got this. Thank you.”

She caught a single glance at Lee’s face forming an offended expression, mouth falling open, before Sasuke closed the door.

Turning back to Sakura and Naruto, he muttered; “What is wrong with him?”

Sakura frowned. “Nothing! Lee is a good guy, leave him alone!”

Even as she spoke, she remembered that she had punched Rock Lee in the face in her first month there when he kept bugging her about showing her around. Sakura could see why he was close to Gai; they both had the same general enthusiasm for everything life could throw at them.

Naruto put his phone to one side. “Anyway, now you’re with us, Sasuke! Let’s start!”

“Thanks for including me, but I don’t want to do this stupid project. Whose idea was it giving out a project like that in a town with so many fucked up families?”

Naruto snorted.

“Well…”, Sakura began hesitantly. “I was thinking, since Naruto and I know nothing about our family histories, maybe we can look into yours?”

Sasuke froze. His gaze shifted from the wall to Sakura and, as his eyes narrowed, she took half a step back.

“My parents died three months ago. Fuck off.”

Internally cringing, she tried to remedy the situation; “Of course. I’m sorry, Sasuke, I didn’t mean to assume…”

“Yeah, sorry”, muttered Naruto. His eyes were downcast, his face more morose and serious than Sakura could recall seeing it.

“You guys don’t understand what it’s like to lose your parents. Both of yours’ died when you were babies.”

Sakura was surprised he remembered her telling him that. Still, it stung.

“Hey, just because I don’t remember losing my parents doesn’t mean I don’t miss them!”

Naruto cut in. “I get what you’re feeling. So does Sakura. That’s all she’s trying to say. It’s not the same, but we’ve all lost our families.”

She threw Naruto a look of mingled anger and relief. He was always the one who knew what to say and, in all honesty, she was glad that he had stepped in. But the fact that that it was _Naruto_ who knew what to say in that situation…

“No, you can’t understand”, the pale-faced boy repeated.

“But I can try. Tell me about them.”

“Didn’t you hear me every time I said I didn’t want to talk about it?”

Naruto spoke quietly. “That’s alright, too.”

Sakura echoed him softly; “Yeah, that’s alright.”

Sasuke sat on the bed and put his head in his hands. “No, it’s not. It’s not alright. I’m so confused and…” He trailed away.

Cautiously, Sakura moved to sit on the edge of his bed. He didn’t react. Didn’t say anything.

“It’s alright to feel that way, Sasuke”, she told him, barely speaking above a whisper.

“Yeah…”, Naruto said.

She knew they were just repeating themselves, but that was all she could think of that they could do.

Several moments of tense silence later, Sasuke drew a long, shuddering breath and looked up. His eyes were red.

“I’ll look up some stuff about my family.” He swallowed. “For the project.”

“Okay”, Sakura said automatically, and then his words sunk in. _He changed his mind pretty quickly, huh?_

He continued; “Just give me some time to do it and find out.”

“Sure”, said Naruto.

“And then we can sort out what we’re going to do with it.”

That thick silence descended again, lasting longer this time. Sasuke sat with his elbows resting on his knees and the only thing disrupting the quiet was his occasional sniffle.

Sakura began to shuffle her legs. She was still sitting on his bed. Even though she felt her heart beating fast at being so close to him, it wasn’t exactly pleasant as usual. It felt like a propeller that wanted to launch her back to the comfort of Naruto’s side of the room.

“I do know some things about my family.”

She turned to look at Sasuke. His head was up now, and he was staring straight across the room at Naruto.

“Oh, really?” When she asked, he turned his head to look at her.

“Yeah. We’ve been here for a long time. We used to be rich.”

Naruto rocketed up in his bed, sitting on the edge like he was about to leap to his feet. “For real?”

“Used to be?”, Sakura repeated.

Sasuke shrugged. “Hmm. Some old family member spent all our money. But we used to be a big family here.”

“Wow”, Naruto sounded a little wistful. “That’s so cool. I wish I came from a big rich family like that.”

“Me too”, Sakura sighed. Feeling a little bolder now, she scooted closer to nudge Sasuke. “What else?”

“Huh… There’s a lot of branches in my family.”

“Branches?”, asked Naruto, and Sakura could immediately tell he was thinking of trees.

She shook her head. What an idiot. “Naruto, branches are like a different part of your family. Cousins, that kind of thing.”

Naruto still looked confused. He squinted from her to Sasuke and back again.

Sasuke explained; “One of my distant cousins- he was a bit older than me- used to tell me that some of the branches of our family were seriously inbred. Which is quite… Weird. But I think maybe he was just messing with me.”

“How come you didn’t go to live with any of your cousins?”, Naruto inquired.

“Well, like I said, we’re not rich anymore. Most of them probably couldn’t afford it. And… I didn’t want to leave here. Home. I told them that over and over after my parents died. I grew up here.”

That was news to Sakura. She had never seen him in town before.

“Where did you go to school?”, she asked him.

“The Academy. It’s on the other side of town.”

“Did you have many friends there?”

“A few. But my family were always my best friends. I spent most of my time with them.”

Something shifted in his expression- if someone asked, Sakura couldn’t tell them what it was exactly, perhaps a darkening of his eyes or thinning of his lips- and the joy was sucked from the room again.

“You should probably go, Sakura”, he told her. “It’ll be time for bed soon.”

She hesitated. They had only just started talking, really talking, for the first time.

But then Naruto gave a huge yawn, stretching his arms over his head, and said; “Being back at school has really got me beat, I need a rest.”

Sakura knew when she wasn’t wanted.

“Well, goodnight then”, she said a little ruefully, sliding forward off Sasuke’s bed and on to her feet, and received a couple of muttered responses.

On her way out of the room she spared one last glance at the dual figures of Naruto, so happy and bright, as he laid down and rolled onto his side with his hair sticking out everywhere, and Sasuke, with his dark hair and clothes, curled in on himself.

She wondered whose idea it was to put those two together.

Whoever it was, they must have an odd sense of humor.

*

The staff lounge probably wasn’t the best place to read the copy of Jiraiya’s latest book that the man had left for him, but Kakashi had long since stopped caring about any sense of decency. And it was better than in the halls, where one of the kids might walk in and see. Here, in this comfortable chair, was most definitely better than in the cold dark halls.

So far, the book was good; it followed Jiraiya’s standard formula of the heroine in a beautiful location experiencing a chance encounter, only this time it was represented in what appeared to be the form of a flashback or a tale recounted, the main character speaking directly to the audience as she told her story. What an incredible writer Jiraiya was, to take his usual tropes and change the style of narrative like that to keep the reader intrigued. Despite that intrigue, however, Kakashi felt himself start drifting into sleep. This chair really was comfortable.

He debated setting the book aside momentarily so he could rest his eyes. Just for a few minutes.

No; he was sure he could keep pushing through. It was just too good to put down.

Kakashi turned the page, attempting to pick back up from where he had left off and once more lose himself in the story.

There was the beautiful young woman, smiling coyly and hiding her iron spirit, walking among the low-hanging catkins of the trees. A river ran nearby. He could hear the soft, steady rush of water with an occasional high-pitched trickling noise, like a small stream of droplets, were pattering into the river from above, perhaps falling from a tree branch.

There must have been a road nearby, too; he could clearly hear an engine. Even the woman seemed disturbed by it, frowning at Kakashi as though it was his fault. The engine grew louder. He turned, looking for the source of the noise, and Obito was sitting in the passenger seat behind him, smiling blithely at him, his eyes red. Kakashi turned back to the windscreen. Something lay in the road, in front of him. He slowed down, turning on his side headlights as there was no other traffic that he could see in the dark.

The shape drew closer. He came to a halt, right in front of it. Stared. The darkness of the car interior and the pale shapes of his hands clutching the steering wheel. The darkness outside the car, and the pale shape of Obito’s body, lying in the road. Half of his face was missing, his body all charred up and streaked by skid marks from the tarmac.

Flashes now. Metal screeching. His friends screaming. A smile as a girl slipped from a window ledge… And then a hand is on his shoulder, jolting him awake.

“First night shift, huh?”, Anko asked with raised eyebrows. Her smile seemed to tease, yet was not malicious. She was one of the main security and premises officers there, Kakashi remembered. He hadn’t seen her around much, but he’d heard the kids call her Anko the psycho. She seemed nice enough, though. Apart from the unwanted touching.

“Er… Yeah.” He shuffled to sit up in his seat. His book was sitting on his lap, still open at the page he had been reading. He was almost surprised by how quiet the room was.

Anko laughed and flopped down on the nearest chair. “You get used to it.”

They sat in silence for a moment as Kakashi continued with trying to read his book. Of course, there was no road; the woman wandered among the trees, listening to the river and waiting for her love to arrive.

It took a moment for him to fully get back into the world of the story and, when he did, he immersed himself in it.

Until Genma came in and started talking to Anko, at which point he stood up and stretched.

His movements seemed to break the conversation.

“You alright, Kakashi?”, asked Genma.

Kakashi made a show of stretching his arms over his head and yawning. “Just going for a stroll.”

“There’s cots in the back if you need a rest”, Anko put in. “I’m just about to turn in myself.”

“Maybe after my walk.”

The cool dark peace of the corridor felt like a refuge. He stopped just outside the staff room door, taking a deep long breath and enjoying the stillness of the air. To his right, a gate was blocking the corridor, the abandoned wing stretching off into the blackness. To his left was a sharp turn which led to the older boys’ rooms and the reception of the home.

A shadow appeared around the corner and Kakashi almost jumped.

Naruto blinked back at him, looking just as startled as Kakashi felt. His usual golden-brown face morphed into nothing but unnatural black and white shapes moving in the dark. The only color that remained was in his strange blue eyes, peering out of the darkness. Even knowing it was Naruto, the sight still spooked Kakashi a little.

Kakashi rested one hand on his side, feeling as his breathing settled down. He asked; “Why are you awake?”

A floodgate was opened. Naruto began a bombardment of questions, barely pausing for breath: “Can you tell me about the history of the home? Who built it? I mean, I know someone in Tsunade’s family had to have built it, but did anything interesting happen here? Did someone die here? Is it haunted? Is that why that one corridor is shut? Am I sleeping next to a haunted corridor? Why would you let me sleep next to a haunted corridor? What about Tsunade? Does her family have any cool secrets? And what about the…”

Naruto’s voice faltered as Kakashi held up one hand. It did nothing to stop his enthusiasm, however; the boy’s face was still earnest and hopeful as he peered up at the worker.

Kakashi blinked, then took a deep breath. “I don’t know. In fact, I probably know less than you do. You’ve been here longer.”

“Aren’t you a volunteer though? You should know this stuff.”

“Volunteer?” Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “You think I’d be here if they weren’t paying me?”

“Hmm.” Naruto seemed to think about it.

“Besides, I’m being paid to watch you, not educate the public on the mission of our fine establishment.”

Naruto looked at him blankly, so Kakashi asked; “Why do you want to know all that, anyway?”

“History project.”

“Right. Ask Tsunade. She’ll know. I don’t think anything has ever happened here that she didn’t know about.” For someone who didn’t leave her office that much, Tsunade had an eerie awareness as to the daily goings-on at the home, Kakashi had discovered in the months he had been here. “Now get a drink or something and go back to your room.”

The kid mockingly saluted him, turned on his heels, and dashed off. Kakashi couldn’t help the small smile tweaking his lips. He imagined Obito must have been something like that as a child.

He shook off the thought.

Too late he thought he probably should have told Naruto not to run. Oh well. When he fell over face first and cut his lip he’d learn.

Continuing on in the same direction as Naruto, Kakashi passed the reception and Tsunade’s office. He thought he saw a light on under her door, but other than that the only light came in through the windows dotted here and there along the walls. It was eerily quiet at this time of night. Over the past couple of months he had been working there, he had gotten used hearing the kids chattering and footsteps sounding at all hours of the day. Asuma had told him that something bumping into his leg in the dark would also turn into a normal occurrence as a lot of the younger children would get out of bed to get drinks.

This quiet now, although eerie, felt like the house settling back into a routine. It was peaceful almost.

As he reached the corner by the lounge, he finally spotted what he was looking for.

A small enclave, almost hidden from view, jutted into the wall halfway down the corridor from the small break room. It was near some of the smaller kids’ rooms, probably so that someone could camp out there if one of the younger ones needed them, but hopefully, by now they would all be asleep.

He stepped into the small space and pushed on the radiator fixed to the wall in the gap. No give. He figured it would be sturdy and comfortable enough to perch on, despite it being stone cold.

Sitting down, Kakashi fumbled his hand into his pocket and pulled out the book that had been crying out to him all evening. It had been nice of Jiraiya to sign it for him. Truly, he was a great man.

Kakashi smiled to himself as he opened the front cover.

He’d only been reading for a few minutes when a voice sounded, loud enough that, if not for the speaker, he may have believed they were shouting directly into his ear.

“If you need to sleep there are cots in the office for that.”

Kakashi blinked through bleary eyes to peer up at- and there was no mistaking it, as tired as he was and as bad as his eyesight was- Gai. How had Gai of all people been able to sneak up on him? He really must be tired.

If it was someone else Kakashi may have taken those words to be aggressive, yet with Gai’s easy grin there was no mistaking the playful tone.

He stretched his back. The freezing metal of the radiator pressed into his legs uncomfortably as his weight shifted. “How do you have so much energy at this time of night?”

“Me? I’m always on the go! Putting all of my effort into the job!” Kakashi didn’t say anything and Gai deflated a little bit, green Spandex-ed arms swinging back down by his side. “Really, though? I mainly work evenings and nights. Because I teach early morning classes at the gym. So I can do that, sleep in most of the day, and then get up for work again!” Yet again he paused, and yet again Kakashi didn’t answer.

Gai peered down at Kakashi. “I haven’t seen you on nights before. Are you thinking of switching over? It’s great, you get so much time to yourself, you can go on sweeps and make sure nothing’s going on. Check for danger!’ He threw a couple of punches at thin air.

He had good form.

Kakashi continued to squint up at him. “They haven’t really given me a fixed rota yet. Just some hours here and there.”

“That can’t be good for your sleep schedule!” Gai frowned.

“I don’t really have much of one anyway.”

Gai laughed, a full laugh that seemed to emanate from deep within his body and shook his whole figure as it emerged.

“You must not have much of one, either”, Kakashi pointed out.

“I… do not”, the man conceded. His tone remained light. “But that suits me. I like being on the go. I admit it’s not great for your social life, but I get enough of that at the gym.” Ah. He was a gym freak. Made sense.

Kakashi tuned back in as he continued; “And here, too. There’s always something going on in the staff room. Talking to the kids is great as well, they’re so entertaining.”

“That’s one word for it.”

Gai frowned. “Do you not think so?”

“Eh.” Kakashi scratched at his neck. “They’re entertaining, for sure. But some of them are just so dumb. I’m sure I was never like that.”

Gai seemed to think that he was joking, because he gave another deep laugh, hands on his hips and chest forwards. Kakashi was sure he could feel the vibrations in the air. It was a miracle that none of the children had woken up yet.

When Gai was done laughing, he asked, hands still on his hips; “So what brings you here, then? If it’s not love for the kids?”

“You know Asuma, hm?” Kakashi rubbed at his head as he spoke. “And Kurenai and Raidou?”

Gai’s head snapped towards him, lips forming a small ‘o’ and eyes sparkling. It weirdly reminded Kakashi of how Pakkun looked right before Kakashi fed him in the morning.

“Oh! Those guys are great I keep telling As he should quit smoking, it’s hardly healthy, but then we all have our vices!”

Kakashi winced a little at the volume, then shuddered. The hallway seemed so quiet when Gai finally stopped shouting.

“… Right. Anyway, we went to college together. We graduated this summer. He told the rest of us about the jobs going here.”

“Wow, congratulations! What did you study? I’m sure it was a difficult subject so someone as sharp as you could really sink your teeth into it!”

“I took some different classes, mainly business. I also took some literature and accounting modules, too.”

“Excellent!”

Kakashi was pretty sure at that point that any answer he gave would be met with the same enthusiasm. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; it was just a little unsettling to be around someone with such a passionate outlook on life. In university- especially final year- he couldn’t remember anybody having that much zeal.

“Yeah. Anyway, after that, I didn’t really have anything else to do. But I knew some people working here. And here I am.” He put the hand that wasn’t holding his book in his pocket casually, feeling a little curious but also not wanting to ask.

He decided to ask anyway. “What about you?”

“Me? Oh, I’ve always wanted to work with kids. Especially those who are lacking the love in their life that they deserve!” Gai looked at him suspiciously. “You have all of your qualifications and everything, right?”

Kakashi looked back at him, confused.

“Childcare qualifications?”, Gai clarified.

“Huh. Yes. I needed those before they let me work here.”

Gai started to laugh. “I can hardly imagine you in a childcare class.”

“Why not? And it wasn’t really… Classes. Some workshops and training days, online classes… Etcetera.” Kakashi gave a small chuckle. “I admit, I’m not sure I took it all in. Sometimes I’m not sure how to talk to these kids.” He was about to blame it on being an adult and unable to relate to them but kept his mouth closed because he realized even when he was a kid himself he found it hard to understand why his peers did the things they did.

“Well, that’s not something that you can teach, you have to have that natural spirit in you! But-”, Gai gave Kakashi a side-eye, “-if you do ever need help, I will be around to dispense some youthful advice!” He leaned in and Kakashi backed up a little, eyes wide. “I’m keeping my eye on you, Kakashi Hatake.”

Unsure if he was being serious or not, Kakashi merely stayed silent, meeting his dark brown eyes. There seemed to be warmth there, he thought, but Gai’s face seemed so serious.

Finally, Gai grinned. Drawing away, he gave Kakashi a thumbs up and started to make his way along the corridor, waving one hand over his shoulder. “I need to finish my rounds. See you later!”

Kakashi watched as he walked away, mildly bewildered by… That entire conversation.

It was only after Gai turned the corner and he tried to return to his place in the book that he registered he’d forgotten what he had been reading and had to go back a page to figure out where he was.


	3. Chapter 3

They had made it through the week. Almost.

The increasingly muggy, hot weather made Naruto want to skip his final class and abscond for the hills outside town. Maybe he could live in the woods and grow a beard. A thick bushy beard, darker than his hair. That would be cool. Lonely, though; even lonelier than the home before Lee came four- or was it five?- years ago. A long time, surely, yet not long enough to eradicate the still-sharp memories of all the evenings spent alone in his room, making up friends to play with. So perhaps he should take someone with him, if he ever did plan to run away. Shikamaru was too lazy to run anywhere. Chouji would never join him. He stuck to the rules, mostly. Kiba might have, but Naruto wasn’t sure if he wanted Kiba’s company. He had spent almost the entirety of their lunch that Friday complaining, and he wasn’t letting up, even as they weaved their way through the schoolyard.

“I still can’t believe I’m stuck with those two.”

“Who?”, Shikamaru asked, without much interest. He never really seemed to care all that much about what Kiba had to say. Naruto was beginning to understand why.

“Shino and Hinata. All Bug Boy wants to do is talk about the history of insects.” Unlike the rest of them, Kiba wasn’t keeping his bag tucked close to his side; instead it swung out as he stormed ahead, effectively clearing a path for the rest to follow as students dodged out of his way.

“You told Shino to come sit with us at lunch today”, Chouji pointed out from behind Naruto.

Kiba shrugged, relenting and finally slowing his pace. “Shino’s alright… He’s funny sometimes. And Hinata’s cool. But she’s so quiet. And she won’t tell me anything about her family. How are we meant to present with her?”

“Hey, Hinata’s okay”, Naruto told him. He dodged a couple of smaller middle-schoolers. “She used to let me copy off her math homework sometimes when we were in the same class.”

“I did say she was cool, I wasn’t saying-”

“And sometimes it’s better to have a balance in your group”, Shikamaru piped up, finally drawing level with the others. He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels as he spoke. “She might prefer to write more of the project, and you can do more presenting than writing.”

“Mm. We’ve got gym next”, Kiba changed the subject. It was pretty obvious, but Naruto was happy to go along with it.

Chouji whooped. “I hope we’re playing rugby again.” He smiled dreamily. “I’ll crush all of you.”

They made their way around the corner and outside the main building, towards the gym. Naruto hoped they would be inside if they were doing tag; the clouds overhead were as grey as a pigeon’s feathers. Perhaps they would have a Summer storm. That would suck. Although, thinking about it, being out in the rain could be worth it to avoid the pain of friction burns from Chouji’s famous rolling tackles.

“We’re with Naruto’s new best friend”, Shikamaru said all of a sudden, stopping a little apart from where the rest of their class and the other classes were waiting to go inside. Gym was the one class that mixed the different sets together.

Naruto turned to him, confused, and then looked around. Who was Shikamaru talking about? He hadn’t made any new friends in the other classes. He tried to follow Shikamaru’s line of sight, but all he could see were some exchange students standing in a huddle.

Chouji mused; “He’s actually pretty cool.”

“Who, Sasuke?” When Chouji nodded, Naruto grinned and echoed his movements. “He’s alright.” The fact that Chouji thought that brought a warm feeling into his chest. If his friends liked Sasuke, surely it would make it easier to include the asshole and befriend him.

Shikamaru snorted. “He’s so emo, though, he doesn’t talk to anyone.”

“You would be too if your parents died”, Chouji pointed out.

Shikamaru opened his mouth, like he was about to argue back, only to fall silent as his eyes struck on something. This time Naruto could see it straight away.

Through the crowds, which parted as if on cue, Sasuke was leaning against the wall of the gym. His dark hair hung down so as almost to completely obscure his face.

While they watched, the boy’s head jerked up. Naruto thought that it might turn in their direction, that Sasuke somehow knew they were speaking about him. Instead, it looked the other way, as though somebody over there had called his name.

A flurry of movement in the same direction caught Naruto’s attention.

“What?”

One of the boys from another class was pushing someone, full force with his palms against their chest. The person being pushed was a small boy with dark red hair, and despite his slim stature the shoves didn’t seem to affect him, as far as Naruto could tell; he remained standing steady.

Naruto caught more glimpses through a tangle of limbs and bodies. Feet planted firmly on the floor. Upper body rocking slightly, the only sign of any incoming force. A face set in a twisted snarl.

He turned to his friends. “Who’s that?”

“One of the new exchange kids”, Kiba told him. “I saw them on Wednesday.”

A crowd began to form around the pair and Naruto stretched up on his tiptoes to see. Shikamaru and Kiba had the same idea, each leaning on one of Chouji’s shoulders to peer above people’s heads.

“He looks weird. Where is he from?”

“I don’t know. Ask him.”

“No, you ask him.”

“Is he wearing eyeliner?”

The fighters vanished from sight briefly, and then the crowd split wide open as the boy from the other class was sent sprawling, moving to jump out of his way. The exchange student stood over him, teeth bared, and Naruto got his first unobstructed look at him.

He wasn’t very big, perhaps a few inches shorter than Naruto. Even under the thick red coat he sported Naruto could tell that he was definitely not very muscular. In fact, he was sort of pale and sickly looking.

Except he was moving like a man possessed, striking with frantic motions. It didn’t look like he had any kind of defined fighting style, like in the fighting games Naruto sometimes played with Kiba. It was just a frenzied rush, a fist thrown there, a kick there. It was clearly effective, however; the other boy couldn’t seem to defend himself, staggering a few steps from side to side and raising his arms in a futile effort to halt the blows. Maybe he was just really bad at fighting, though. As Naruto watched, he fell to the floor.

“Man, what is with him?” Kiba sucked a low, whistling breath in between his teeth. His eyes were trained on the exchange student.

“Maybe he said something to upset him”, Chouji suggested.

That was probably it. Naruto had seen bullies before- been bullied before- but he’d never seen that much unbridled rage without some kind of reason behind it.

“Maybe he insulted his eyeliner”, said Shikamaru, and Naruto snickered a bit at that. The exchange student was wearing a lot of eyeliner. It didn’t look bad, exactly; simply different.

His line of sight was blocked once again by a couple of gym teachers wading into the fray to break it up. Most of their classmates dispersed into their original huddled groups as the drama came to an end. He watched with mild interest as the exchange student walked away, head held high in the air, in front of one of the teachers. The other followed with the boy who had been flung to the ground and pummelled. He clutched a bloody tissue to his face.

“I heard what happened.”

Naruto looked around to see Shino standing in front of them, hood up and hands in his tracksuit pockets. He was already dressed for the gym, for some reason, in casual clothing, long tracksuit pants and a not-quite part of the school uniform zipped-up hooded jacket. Perhaps he got changed in the toilets beforehand. He was in the other gym class, but Naruto still couldn’t recall ever seeing him in the changing rooms.

The blond boy tilted his head. “Really? What?”

“I got caught up in the crowd. The exchange student started it. He said something about the other one looking at him, but then he started getting really upset when the other boy told him he wasn’t.”

“Why?”, asked Chouji.

“I don’t know.” Shino shook his head slowly. “He started speaking another language. But I know the kid that got beat up from primary school, and he doesn’t usually get into trouble like that.”

Kiba gave an unimpressed humph. “So the exchange student’s just a psycho.”

“Where are they from?”, Chouji wondered aloud.

Naruto thought. Where did crazy people come from?

“America?”

“Europe?”

“Russia?”

Shikamaru shook his head. “I think they’re French.”

Naruto squinted at him. “Yeah?”

“Hm. I could understand a bit of what they were saying.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot you could speak that.” Shikamaru was the most linguistically gifted member of the group, always speaking in English in class with the teacher as Naruto and Chouji struggled through various worksheets together. Chouji’s and Ino’s parents also came from abroad, but Shikamaru’s parents both spoke multiple languages. Being at their home was odd because Shikamaru would often repeat himself in different languages. Naruto thought it was cool. But Shikamaru always told him it was annoying, and sometimes stressful.

“They don’t look French.” Kiba gave another humph.

“You’ve never been to France”, Shikamaru retorted, crossing his arms.

“Neither have you!”

“I’ve spoken to French people though!”

“Oh, you’ve spoken to every single person in France?”

Chouji interrupted, holding his hands in front of his chest as though afraid one of them would turn on him. “Perhaps they’re from another country that speaks French.”

“Maybe they weren’t speaking French at all”, Kiba challenged.

“Then how did I understand them, moron?”

“I don’t know, maybe they spoke English or- I don’t know, Russian- and you got confused.”

“Boys!” Their teacher cut in. “Did you not hear me?”

“No”, Naruto answered honestly. Blinking around, he saw the students from the other classes had gone.

The teacher shook his head. “Get inside and get changed.”

They began moving, corralled in by the teacher following them to the changing rooms. Shino idled behind and, when Naruto looked back, he had disappeared. Weird. Still, there were bigger worries.

“I don’t care where that kid is from”, Naruto muttered to Shikamaru as they walked inside. “Unless he causes trouble. Then I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.” He punched his fist into his palm.

Shikamaru shook his head and grabbed Naruto’s wrist, pulling him further ahead of Chouji and Kiba and through the doors of the changing room. “Come on, idiot. Leave it to the adults to deal with.”

*

Sakura had made it about half a mile from the school when she realized that Naruto wasn’t with them.

“Hey.”

Tenten, coming to visit for the evening, and Lee paused in their conversation and turned to look at her.

“What?”, Lee asked. His thick eyebrows arched up on his forehead and disappeared behind his fringe.

Well, there was no point waiting to see where Naruto was now. He might even have left and gotten home ahead of them already.

Sakura sighed and shook her head. “Nothing. Never mind.”

She turned her face up to the sky, drawing in a deep breath. It didn’t do much to clear her head; dark clouds had settled over their town, a thick linen blanket that hung so low it must have brushed against the roofs of the houses, turning the air static.

When she glanced back down, Tenten was watching her, a cheery grin on her face. Sakura tilted her head at her.

“You want to help us get a hold of the TV so we can watch a _good_ movie?’, Tenten asked. Her twin buns bounced up and down on either side of her head as she all but skipped along the pavement beside Lee.

Sakura smirked at the obvious shot at Karin. She was always monopolizing the lounge. “Sure. I’m going to start brainstorming ideas for my history project when we get in, but I’ll join you after.”

“Ooh!” Tenten’s eyes lit up and she grabbed Lee’s shoulder. “Is that the project we did with Neji last year? His cousin is in your class”, she informed Sakura in an aside.

“Hinata?” She was sure she’d seen the small short-haired girl walking home with Neji before.

“Yep. He didn’t contribute much, which is a shame. Our grade wasn’t that good.”

“What did you do yours on?”

Tenten shrugged. “My family. I come from a long, long line of people who haven’t done very much, apparently. It sucks but I figure I have to be the interesting one now. Spice things up a bit.”

Sakura smiled at her.

“You’re surely going to leave your stamp on history!” Lee nodded. Sakura’s smile grew as she took in the serious set of his mouth. He always took the things that his friends said to heart.

“I don’t know about history”, Tenten continued, “but I want to at least be someone any kids I have will think is remarkable.”

That was a cool idea. If she had kids one day, she would want to have lots of cool things to tell them about her life so far. She wondered if her parents had stories that they had wanted to tell her, someday, as they held her tiny sleeping body in their arms. She wondered if they had planned what and when they would tell her about their lives before her. Things she would never get to hear about.

She was only pulled from her reverie when they reached the gates to the house, tuning back in to hear Lee chattering away about protein. She wasn’t listening, really. Not out of disinterest or rudeness or anything of the sort- she genuinely loved Lee- but she felt tired. And her mind kept wandering back to their history project.

Maybe she was never going to know all that much about her family, at least until she was older and could research it herself. While she was at this home, though, she could do some searching to learn more about it, and the new friends she had made there. A chance to connect with a place, to root herself in a town. She had been here for over a year and still felt like, as with every other home she had been to, that she was still just… Drifting. The new girl, who would be gone soon. Of course, she had In, but she had been friends with girls like In before, at other schools. It had never ended well. This time maybe she could make things different.

In reception she waved to Shizune at her desk, and then to Tenten and Rock Lee as they turned in the direction of the lounge.

“Are you really not coming with us?”, Lee queried. His thick dark brows were furrowed in consternation.

“No, sorry. I just want to talk to Naruto and Sasuke about something.”

“Join us later maybe?”, Tenten asked cheerfully, pulling gently on Lee’s wrist.

“Okay!”

Sakura walked through the halls in the opposite direction of her room. The walls felt warm as she ran her hand over them, like a cat that had been lying in the sun all day, despite that the sky outside had grown overcast.

She reached the room she was seeking and stopped. Their door was open. Curious. Peering in, she found Sasuke sitting cross-legged on his bed with a book. He met her gaze as she stepped inside, then dropped his back to what he was reading. There was no sign of Naruto initially, however some cluttering noises from the bathroom alerted her to his presence on the other side of the streaky-painted white door.

Sakura shifted her weight onto one foot, toeing at the floor with the other, and locked her hands behind her back. “So… Have you thought any more about the project?”

To her surprise, Sasuke immediately shut his book. “I did actually.” He cleared his throat. “I looked into my family history a little.”

"Oh. Anything interesting?"

"Not really. Just stuff I already knew. Used to be rich, lost most of that a few generations back."

“Oh.” Sakura shifted her weight to her other foot. “That’s still a good place to start, though.”

A flurry of movement made her turn her head and a pattering of feet getting closer was her only warning before Moegi barrelled into her knee, head first.

Sakura yelped. “Moegi! Watch where you’re going!”

The small girl rubbed her head dramatically. “Watch where you’re going!”

“I was just standing here!” Sakura remembered Sasuke was watching, took a deep breath, and lowered her fist. “Why are you here?”

The girl fidgeted from one leg to another for a moment, looking thoughtful, and then suddenly perked up, smiling. “Oh, yes. Tsunade is looking for you. She said she’s been on the phone with your school.”

Sakura grimaced. That could never be good.

“She said it was about your hair.”

Sakura’s frown deepened. _Of course._

“ _I_ think it’s cool”, said Moegi.

“Thanks”, Sakura brightened minutely. “I’ll go see Tsunade later.” Much, much later, preferably.

“Okay. Goodbye!” Moegi turned on her heels and left in an abrupt way that only didn’t seem rude when it was a small child doing it.

The door swung shut with a soft click behind her, leaving Sakura alone. Alone with Sasuke.

She turned back to him to find that he had gone back to his book, hunched over the pages with eyes narrowed in concentration. Frustrated, she bit her lip, trying to think of a way to reignite the conversation.

Only to never get the chance, for Naruto chose that moment to fling the bathroom door wide. Sakura winced as it crashed into the wall.

“Naruto, you idiot”, Sasuke hissed, abandoning his book momentarily. Well, perhaps Naruto did have his good points.

The blond boy was flushed as he entered the room and asked Sakura, without even looking at his roommate; “Is she gone?”

“Erm… Yes, she’s gone.” _Surely Naruto could see that for himself?_

Naruto let out an overdramatic sigh of relief, and then said; “I have a plan.”

“Really? You do?”

“Yep!” Naruto threw his chest out like he was a superhero. Sakura couldn’t quite believe it.

“A plan for our project?”, she double-checked.

“What? No.”

And there it was.

Sasuke set his book to one side, looking as bewildered as Sakura felt. “A plan for what, then?”

“We’re going to prank Kakashi.”

*

Sasuke didn’t really get why Naruto and Sakura kept involving him in their various projects and schemes yet, he supposed, they weren’t as bad as he had initially believed.

Well. Scratch that. They were the best of a bad bunch. Annoying, but he supposed it was better than grumpy Lee or clingy Karin or those crying toddlers. Sometimes he could hear them at night. The wailing would stop after a few minutes and keep him awake for hours.

Naruto was sat on his bed, fiddling with something that looked suspiciously like a water pistol.

Ever since Sakura had left to get changed from her uniform, a dense silence had filled the room. Sasuke usually didn’t mind; in fact, he sought the silence. Especially when Naruto or one of the others was babbling on at him.

However, questions had been bubbling up inside him over the last few months, and now seemed like it might be an opportune time to ask. For curiosity’s sake, if nothing else.

He coughed.

Naruto looked up at him briefly, then dropped his gaze back to what he was doing with the pistol. A small sachet of dark liquid appeared from the pocket of his pants and he tore it open with his teeth, even though there it had clearly been opened before and merely folded shut.

Sasuke coughed again. “Naruto.”

“Huh? Yeah?” Naruto spat the torn-off plastic from his mouth and wiped it with the back of his hand.

“Why did I get put with you as a roommate? I mean, why didn’t you and Rock Lee share a room?” Surely, they had the space to give them each their own room. But Tsunade had told him when he first arrived that she liked to make sure they had someone to room with, so they wouldn’t get lonely. So why hadn’t Naruto and Lee already been together when he arrived? He didn’t like the idea that they had been moved specifically so he could have a roommate. Like he needed babysitting or watching in his first few months there.

“Oh.” Naruto went quiet for a moment, fiddling with the sachet in his hands as he poured the liquid into the water gun. “Lee is trans so, er, they decided to put him in his own room.” He didn’t meet Sasuke’s eyes.

Sasuke realized he was nervous, almost like Sasuke was going to react poorly to the news.

Instead he crossed his arms, acting casual. “That’s cool. So is my brother.” He wanted to say more, but it wasn’t worth telling someone like Naruto about it.

Two wide blue eyes peered up at him. “Wow, really?”

… Well, he was going to have to talk about it now.

“Yes. For as long as I can remember, he’s been my brother. Dad was…” He fiddled with one of his sleeves, pulling it down over his hand. “Funny about some stuff, but he liked having another son, I think.”

He supposed that if it had been the other way around it might have been different, but it wasn’t, so his father had always been enthusiastic, trying to get Itachi into stuff like action movies and violent shows, even though Itachi didn’t like that stuff much anyway.

Sasuke realized Naruto was giving him a curious smile. _He’d said too much._ Scowling, he averted his eyes to the doorway.

As if on cue, Sakura appeared in it.

“Oh, Sasuke, hi again!”

Did she think she was cute with that? She practically ignored Naruto, which Sasuke thought was pretty rude, simply giving a hand wave in his direction once she had entered the room.

“Hey, what’s that?”, Sakura looked comically owlish as she peered at Naruto’s pistol.

“Oh.” Naruto’s dumb blue eyes were equally comical as he stared back at her. "It’s ink. I took it out of a bunch of pens. I’m going to mix it with water. But only a bit. I don’t want to dilute it too much."

If only Naruto applied the same thought and detail into his schoolwork as he did stupid shenanigans like that, then he could be near the top of the class.

Naruto emptied the sachet into the water gun, then went to the bathroom and Sasuke heard the tap running. Filling it up the rest of the way.

When he returned, he aimed it at Sakura, who gave a grating high-pitched squeal, and then at Sasuke, who raised one hand and glared in protest.

“Alright, now we just need the feathers.”

There was a glint of light as Naruto pulled something from his bedside drawer. A pair of scissors. _Who even let him have those?_

The blond then rummaged in the bottom of the wardrobe.

“What, do you have a chicken in there?”

He didn’t answer his roommate, instead pulling out an old misshapen pillow, which he threw to Sakura.

She stood there, clutching it between her hands. “I don’t know, Naruto… I feel kind of bad.”

“Don’t you want to see Kakashi without that mask over his mouth?”

“Well…”

Sasuke hadn’t even realized they had been joined by someone else until Naruto looked up and said, in an usually flat tone; “Oh. Hey.”

Standing in the middle of their room was a small child. Sasuke recognized him as one of the three gremlins that followed Naruto about, along with the ginger girl who had just been here moments before. _All we need now is for the other one to show up._

“What are you doing here?”, Sakura asked, hands on her hips.

The boy scuffed a small sneakered foot against the carpet and Sasuke bit his lip to keep from chiding him. _Didn’t he know that was rude?_ He had a blue blanket tied over his shoulders like a cape and he tugged at it as he spoke.

“I wanted to say sorry for getting you into trouble.”

“Oh. Hmm. That’s okay. You can help us with our prank if you like, to make up for it.”

The boy’s brown eyes stretched wide into big glassy orbs. “What prank?”

“We’re going to get Kakashi dirty so he has to take his mask off.”

The orbs dimmed once more. “Is that a prank? Also, how do you know Kakashi will come here and not one of the others?”

Naruto blustered; “He’s one of the only staff on today, he’ll be here.”

“What if you get Tsunade?”

And that thought even frightened Sasuke.

The silence drew over the room for a few heartbeats as they all looked at each other.

Then Naruto said; “It’ll definitely be Kakashi.”

Sasuke thought he looked less confident now, his throat working.

Undeterred, he continued.

“Alright, so here’s the plan: Konohamaru and I are going to hide in the bathroom, so when they knock on the door, you open it and hide behind it. They’ll be confused for a few seconds and then we’ll blast open the bathroom door and spray Kakashi in the face.”

He looked around, smile faltering as the lack of confidence in the room finally seeped through into his bubble of assurance.

“That’s dumb”, said Sasuke, “What if I get hit?”

“But you won’t because you’ll be behind the door.”

“So where will I be?”, Sakura asked.

“On the other side of the door with the feathers. After we spray them you throw the feathers and then they’ll stick to them.”

“Are you sure they’ll stick?”, asked Konohamaru.

“Yep. Saw it in a cartoon.”

“So of course, it’ll work." Sasuke sighed. He couldn’t help noticing Naruto had given him the least to do. Konohamaru apparently missed the sarcasm because his liquid brown eyes turned to blink up at Sasuke in wonder, a gappy grin taking up half of his face.

“Is there anything else I can do to help?”, the younger boy asked.

“Yep”, Naruto told him. “You get to pull all of the feathers out of the pillow.”

*

That Friday was the first time that the four new workers- if they could still be considered new; Kakashi, the one who has most recently joined the team, had been at the home for months now- had been put on a shift together since they started. Kakashi figured that meant Tsunade felt they could be trusted.

It was a welcome change, in any case. A chance to spend time with the people who knew him well enough to know not to bother him when he didn’t want to be bothered, rather than pestering him like Anko or Izumo and Kotetsu or _Gai_.

Yet it didn’t mean he was completely free: As the four of them helped to prepare for dinner, Genma and Ebisu joined them.

Kakashi watched them both wearily from the corner of his eye as he poured various cups of juice and milk and water, to be set out on the dinner tables. He had seen Genma hanging out with Gai several times. He hoped that wasn’t because of any similarity in their personalities. Although, he doubted that was even possible. Gai’s sheer exuberance was one-of-a-kind. Ebisu was more of a mystery to him. Kakashi had seen him lounging in one corner of the staffroom a few times, a bandana tied around the top of his head and his dark round glasses clearly reflecting the pages of the magazines he was reading. Some of the material he perused put the _Icha-Icha_ series to shame.

Apparently Asuma, Kurenai and Raidou had already befriended Genma, because the four of them had quickly fallen into an easy patter of conversation, Kakashi and Ebisu sticking out as silent pillars in the room.

“I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo”, Asuma said as he lifted a head of lettuce from the fridge and reached for a knife.

Raidou made a face. “Why? It’s not really professional?”

“It depends what it is really, doesn’t it? And where it is? I think it could look nice”, said Kurenai.

_She would._ Kakashi finished pouring a jug of milk out and moved to set it back in the fridge.

“Still”, Raidou continued, “you’ve got to think about future employers and how they might see that kind of thing.”

Genma snickered and stepped around Kakashi, who was making his way back to his station, to briefly rest a hand on Raidou’s shoulder. “Man, you’re too serious, sometimes.” He glanced towards Asuma. “Just get one where no one will see. Except for you and Kurenai, of course.”

Kurenai turned a light shade of red. “Raidou does have a point though. Tsunade is very relaxed and good to her employees, but we might not work here forever.”

“I still don’t see the harm in it”, Genma argued in a lazy drawl, turning back to his own work. “As long as it’s hidden.”

“It was just a thought, guys”, Asuma told them, still slicing vigorously at the lettuce. “You’re right though, Kurenai, I don’t think Tsunade would care much even if I showed up with a giant dragon running down my arm.”

“What about your dad?”, asked Ebisu. The question came so unexpected that even Kakashi paused in pouring water, listening intently.

“What about him?”

“Well…”, Ebisu’s voice trailed off and disappeared as he reached into the oven. The entire kitchen seemed to be holding its breath as he spent a minute removing metal trays holding different food items from the hot giant mouth and set them on the top with a cascade of clanging. Eventually he removed his thick padded gloves and said; “Well, you got the job here because of your dad, didn’t you? He used to be, like, the manager here and I think he’s on the board now, right?” Asuma gave a single nod. “So what do you think he would make of it?”

“Doesn’t really matter what he’d make of it”, Asuma whispered, so quietly that Kakashi thought only he and Kurenai, on his other side, would have heard.

Genma looked round, brown hair falling out of his hairnet at the sides. “Huh? None of you guys ever told me that.” He eyed Asuma speculatively. “So, you’re Hiruzen’s kid, right? Hey, you’re not reporting back to him about all of us, are you?”

Kakashi noticed the way Asuma’s back stiffened and his muscles tightened up, even under his loose t-shirt. Genma must have noticed too: He returned to setting food on the dishes and ducked his head.

“He doesn’t speak to his dad enough for that”, Kurenai muttered.

The back of Genma’s head nodded. He clearly knew when to drop the subject.

Ebisu didn’t.

“Still, close enough to get you a job.”

Asuma froze and turned slowly towards him, a leaf of lettuce dangling in his gloved hand. “What of it?”

Kakashi wanted to make a witty observation, something to lighten the mood, only he couldn’t think of anything, and the lettuce leaf hanging there limply as Asuma stood so firm threatened to make him burst out laughing. He dug his chin down beneath the neck of his sweater, even with his mask on, so there was no chance anyone could see the smirk on his face and carried on with his task, like a robot. Like always. He reached for some plates instead and began wiping them over, ready for the food to go on.

Kurenai said in a strained voice; “Asuma’s nephew is here too.”

“Yeah, Konohamaru”, Asuma nodded and set the lettuce down, reaching for more. “That little…”

“Oh, tell me about it.” Ebisu laughed.

Kakashi finished with the plate he was doing and reached for another.

“I guess that’s one big perk to working here: I get to spend some time with him.”

Genma half-turned to Asuma again. “Perfect, you can come with me to call his friends for dinner then. He might actually listen to you.” He looked around and caught Kakashi’s eye. “Hey, do you want to come too?”

Kakashi stared down at the empty plate. His own reflection peered back. He had already done quite a few. And the kids never came for dinner all at once, so there would be time to come back and do some more if he had to.

“Might as well”, he replied, peeling his gloves off.

Genma and Asuma wrangled their own gloves off and headed to the door.

When he made to follow, Kakashi was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

Kurenai was staring up at him. Her face looked odd, somehow wider and paler than usual, with her hair pulled back. She rarely tied her hair back.

“How have you been?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “The anniversary…”

“I’m fine.”

She gave him a doubtful look, so he smiled, making sure it reached his eyes.

Brightening up, she turned to Asuma and Genma, who had both paused in the doorway, waiting.

“I’d better come too, in case one of the girls isn’t answering their doors or something.”

They split up silently, Asuma and Kurenai staying to knock on the doors of the younger kids and the girls, and Genma and Kakashi going to get Naruto, Sasuke and Rock Lee on the other side of the home.

They cut through the courtyard to get there, going through the glass inner doors. The main path was marked by small pebbles and on either side there were shrubs and succulents. All around the walls, windows appeared at intervals, although they were all translucent and nothing could be made out inside other than vague shapes. Genma pulled off his hairnet, scrunched it up, and stuck it in the pocket of his jacket.

“Surprised Ibiki isn’t out here today”, Kakashi remarked as they made their way outside. He was usually hanging about in the yard, guarding the garden. Often he saw Anko and Hayate join him late in the evenings, hovering in a small cluster in the dark, only visible by the small triad of lights that were the cigarettes they cradled. Asuma had joined them a couple of times, too.

“I think he has the day off”, Genma said. He gave Kakashi another speculative look.

Kakashi regarded him warily: Genma was always looking at him from the side of his eye, like he was subtly trying to figure something out. Some of the other workers did it, too, but Genma was the most open about it.

His companion continued as they walked; “How’s everyone here treating you, anyway?”

“The workers are fine. The kids not so much.”

Genma barked a laugh. “I know how you feel. I’ve been here for three years, and some days I’m still not sure why. But hey”, he gave a genuine smile, “now and then they make you realize.”

“Gai said something similar the other night… That the kids make things interesting?”

“Oh, they sure do.” 

For a moment the only sounds were their feet crunching on the path.

Kakashi trailed one hand over the spiny leaf of an aloe plant, watching the way it moved under his fingers. He wiped his hands on his trousers to rid them of the dewy drops from the fronds. “Is he always… So loud?”

Genma laughed again. “Gai?”

“Yes. He’s going to give me tinnitus and I don’t want to have to spend all of my time working here avoiding him.”

“He’s usually a little loud, but… Maybe he was just excited then. He gets that way sometimes.”

Kakashi considered it. Gai did seem that type of person. The kind of flashy person that Kakashi usually couldn’t stand. But those loud people usually had egos like paper, that they propped up with their constant bolshiness. Gai wasn’t just helping people to make himself look better, Kakashi was sure, he was doing it because he wanted to. _Probably too stupid to think about lying and making himself look better._

Genma unlocked the glass doors on the other end of the building, near the reception. Lee’s door was closest, but Genma walked straight past.

“We’ll get Naruto and Sasuke first, then come back for Lee. Kid’s always ready for dinner, anyway.” The silent implication that the others wouldn't be went unsaid.

Kakashi followed him along the corridor to the right room. The door was shut. As they approached, he could hear muffled giggling, and he raised an eyebrow at Genma.

“Brace yourself”, Genma mouthed, and then knocked on the door.

Kakashi braced himself.

Whatever he’d been expecting, being sprayed in the chest with ink and then having a handful of feathers thrown at his back wasn’t it.

“Naruto! You didn’t aim high enough!”, Konohamaru all but screamed, emerging from the bathroom. He had a single white feather perched almost perfectly on top of his head, caught in his tousled brown hair. His small round face was pink as he puffed his cheeks out.

The boy with the water gun slowly lowered it and took a step closer.

“They’re not sticking”, he said slowly.

“I told you they wouldn’t”, huffed Sakura.

Konohamaru turned to Naruto. “You’re stupid. Sasuke is smarter than you.”

The dark-haired boy emerged from behind the door, crossing his arms and smirking, as Naruto lowered his head.

Kakashi sighed as he looked round at them, and back at Genma, who had somehow got ink on his sleeve and a feather caught on his collar. They must have bounced of Kakashi and landed behind him somehow.

Together their gazes wandered downwards, to where a dark stain was spreading on the carpet where Kakashi’s sweatshirt was dripping. Thankfully he had a few different sweaters the same as this one. The carpet, though…

Deeper laughter made them glance up. Asuma and Kurenai were stood in the corridor, Kurenai’s hands on her hips and Asuma’s face split in humor.

“Figured Konohamaru would be over here, since he wasn’t in his room”, Asuma told them.

“Looks like you found him”, said Kurenai, biting at her lip to stifle a laugh.

Genma scowled and picked the feather from his collar, flicking it at them. It hovered in the air for a moment before sinking to the floor several feet from the intended targets. A snicker broke free from Kurenai.

Kakashi couldn’t stop himself. He let a laugh break through, because damn those kids, it was funny. Not in the way they had intended, perhaps, but the fact that they had tried to get him, had put effort into what they- well, Naruto- had clearly thought was a clever plan, was pretty hilarious. He was glad Sasuke was somewhat involved, as well. He had seemed solitary so far.

The kids stared at him with wide eyes, and his coworkers were not much better.

“Go home and get changed”, Asuma told him after a beat, “I’ll let Tsunade know. And…” He turned to the kids. “We’ll deal with these ones.”

*

They were grounded, of course.

For the weekend. Naruto figured that, since he’d done a lot worse over the years, Tsunade had sort of grown desensitized to his antics. A few years back, that same prank would have gotten him at least a whole week. Or maybe Tsunade didn’t want to keep grounding him. Surely by now she had figured out that the longer he stayed in the house, the more bored he got, and the more he was likely to get into trouble.

Which was why, on a warm Sunday evening when most of the younger kids had been taken out to the park by Tsunade and some of the other workers, Naruto decided to start a game of dares with Sakura and Sasuke.

He and Sakura _had_ gone to ask Lee to join them, only to find him in his bathroom, peering in the mirror and gripping a razor as Gai instructed him on how to shave. Naruto had never seen Lee sporting any sort of facial hair, but he didn’t say anything.

On their third lap through the halls, changing direction every time they got to one end of the blocked-off corridor like the home was a giant pinball machine and the abandoned hallway was the flippers sending them bouncing back, Sakura said; “Sasuke, I dare you to lick the wall.”

Naruto laughed as Sasuke grimaced. “It’s just a wall.”

“It’s gross.”

“I’ve probably done it before.”

“Of course you have.” Sasuke sighed. “There are tiny kids here, they must’ve put their hands all over it.”

“Lick higher up.”

Sasuke sighed but did as requested, standing on his tiptoes to lick up the wall. Naruto thought that it shouldn’t count because his tongue only briefly touched the dank wallpaper. He opened his mouth to complain, only to realize that if he did so his next dare would surely be much worse.

The dark-haired boy was wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

“How does it taste?”, Naruto asked, somewhat smugly.

“It doesn’t really _taste_ of anything… It’s just…” He wrinkled his nose. “Dusty.”

“Yeah, this place is _really_ old”, Sakura chimed in. “And it needs cleaning. The last place I was in, it was all modern. White walls and stuff. I was the youngest one there, though.”

Sasuke nodded thoughtfully and they continued on around the halls until they were nearly at the kitchen, at the back of the building. It was eerily quiet. Empty. Only a few members of staff had stayed behind with them, Gai among them. Naruto knew Konohamaru had to be home, too, but there had been no sign of him thus far. Come to think of it, Karin should be skulking around somewhere as well since she had elected not to go. Naruto was slightly happier about them not having run into her. In fact, he hadn’t even heard any signs of her in the lounge, where she annoyingly liked to turn the TV all the way up.

“Hey!” He grabbed Sakura’s shoulder, pulling her to a stop. Sasuke dawdled besides them, hands in his pockets. “Since the others aren’t home, maybe the lounge is free! Let’s go and find Konohamaru and watch a movie!”

“You’re just trying to get out of your dare.”

Naruto glared at Sasuke. “You haven’t even given me it yet! Why would I try to get out of it if I don’t know what it is?”

He internally cursed that, because they had decided to rotate who dared who, Sasuke was the one coming up with dares for him. It was stupid Sakura’s fault. She had wanted to be the one daring Sasuke each time, had insisted on it. So far, the dares Sasuke had given him hadn’t been so bad, they were just as annoying as the stupid smirk on his face whenever he said them.

They reached the end of the corridor and Naruto turned around to go back, knocking arms with Sakura. After only a few doubled-back steps it occurred to Naruto that Sasuke had stopped and was peering into the darkness, over the small gate blocking off the next hall.

“What?”

“Does that hatch lead up into the roof?”

Naruto moved to stand next to him, following where his finger was pointing. A small white door was embedded in the ceiling almost exactly halfway down the forbidden corridor. “Yeah…”

“I dare you to go up there.”

“No!”, Sakura protested, appearing by their side. “It’s blocked off for a reason, Naruto!”

That did it. Naruto put his hands on his hips and faced his roommate. “Alright then!”

“How would you even get up there?”

And that was where Naruto had the advantage: He knew every in and out of this place. “They say it’s blocked off and the rooms are mostly empty, but Izumo and Kotetsu keep all their janitor stuff in one of them. I’m sure there’s something in there we can use to reach the latch.”

But Sakura wasn’t looking at him. She was watching Sasuke.

The boy eyed Naruto for a long moment from under heavily hooded lids, then slowly nodded his assent. “Alright. As long as you’ll actually go up there and won’t wuss out.”

Naruto practically hurdled the gate and was in the room where Izumo and Kotetsu kept their things before either of the others had made it over.

It felt strange walking in there; like a weird mirror of his own room. There was only one bed frame, and it was bare bar a brown-stained mattress. The wardrobe was the same as his own, but otherwise the surfaces that weren’t covered in tools were covered in cobwebs. It was smaller than the rooms on the other side of the home, square rather than rectangular. The bathroom door was off to the side, whereas all the other rooms had the bathrooms on the inside, facing the courtyard.

Naruto grabbed a broom.

“Isn’t there anything else?”, Sasuke asked skeptically. “Something with a hook?”

“I don’t think we should be taking it”, Sakura said.

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

The broom was heavier than Naruto had expected. He had to use both hands to maneuver it out of the room, bumping the head against the doorframe as he did so.

Sakura leaped out of the way. “Naruto, watch what you’re doing with that thing!”

“Oh, sorry.”

Out in the corridor, Naruto took a deep breath and listened. There were no signs that Gai or any of the other workers were nearby, which was good. If any of them decided to head to the staff room at this moment, they would surely be spotted, and then…

He used the end of the handle to knock at the latch. The broom swung uncontrollably for a moment, and Naruto momentarily feared it would fall to one side and tip him over with it, but he managed to stabilize it after a few seconds, enough to jab straight up.

Nothing happened other than the latch jiggling slightly. He decided to change angles, moving further along the corridor with Sakura and Sasuke and holding the broom diagonally. It was harder to hold the shaft steady than before, and his forearms ached.

It was a good thing they had moved back; as soon as he knocked the latch open the hatch flung wide and a metal ladder shot out, one end sliding down to the floor with a loud thud.

Someone grabbed Naruto’s arm and pulled him, and he ran with them, back into Izumo and Kotetsu’s tool room. He shut the door behind him and the three looked at each other in silence, gathering their breath. _Surely someone must have heard that?_

“Can you hear anything?”, Sakura whispered by Naruto’s ear, and he shushed her.

His heart raced as they listened out for any indication that they had been found out.

“Nothing”, Sasuke whispered.

Naruto considered that. “Perhaps it sounded louder to us because we were right next to it.”

“Perhaps.”

Sakura opened the door and they moved as one to stand under the empty gaping mouth, ladder lolling out like a tongue. It appeared the other end had been fixed to the entrance by some hinges. Naruto could just make out the very top of the ladder poking out into the darkness. Beyond that, nothing.

He remembered all the times Iruka had warned him against going up there. All the stories Tsunade had told him about people falling through the roof and breaking their necks. They couldn’t all have been true; she was probably just making them up to scare him away. But what if…?

Only Sasuke was watching him, eyes half-closed and the thin corner of his mouth tilted in a smirk.

Naruto gripped the metal of the ladder with both hands and flinched. It felt as if it had never been touched by the sun. He took another deep, shuddering breath, and began to climb.

He had half-expected the darkness to fall away like fog the closer he got to the top, to begin to make out shapes in the gloom, or even simply to see the end above him where the roof boxed the attic in. But, even just a couple of steps from the top, it remained pitch black.

He screwed his eyes shut and blinked a few times, trying to force them to adjust.

“Can you see anything?”, Sakura shout-whispered.

Naruto didn’t look down. His tongue felt dry when he answered; “No.”

He took another step, foot fumbling for a hold before he guided his hands onto that final rung and pulling his body up, bringing his head and shoulders through the hole and into the darkness. His hands and the seemingly dull metal that bit with a frosty sharpness were the only things that seemed real. Like floating in a void.

“You have to go right up”, Sasuke told him, voice surprisingly muffled from just several feet of distance, and Naruto gritted his teeth.

“But I can’t see anything, what if I trip over something?”

“Well… Maybe just sit in it.”

“No, come back down”, Sakura hissed.

“Don’t worry, I did it all the time as a kid”, Naruto said, trying to sound confident. He did use to climb up in the roof when he was younger- at least until Iruka caught him. He wondered what Iruka would say if he could see him now.

“But you were lighter then!”

That gave him pause. But only for a moment. He scaled the last couple of steps, trying not to cringe as he rested his hands onto a surface he couldn’t see, then hoisted himself up so that he sat on the edge, feet dangling into thin air. It didn’t feel that much different than being up in the trees outside. It wasn’t even as high as that. He peered back down at his roommate and friend. Sakura was peeking from behind her fingers, and Sasuke’s face was pallid beneath his dark bangs.

“You can come back down now”, he said.

Naruto leaned back to swing his legs and catch a rung but felt something touch the back of his head and he clasped his hands over his mouth to stop a scared shriek from escaping.

Sakura’s hands flew away from her face. “What? Naruto, what is it?”

Sasuke balled his fists and took a step forwards, paler than Naruto had ever seen him.

Instinctively, Naruto reached back without looking and grabbed at the thing touching him, hardly daring to breathe. His heart was beating so hard his pulse shook his hands.

It was some kind of string. He tugged it.

And the attic was flooded with light.

Naruto gave a delighted, relieved laugh. “I found the light switch.”

Once he could see, he realized that most of his fears- monster spiders and vampire bats waiting in the dark to feast on him- were entirely unfounded.

The attic was long, stretching out to either side of him, the same as the corridor below, yet largely empty. There were some cobwebs and he could see spiders, but they were on the walls, far away from him. Everything was made up of wooden panels. He could see the attic turned a corner and ran in the other direction where the hallways beneath did, too. He wondered if there was something around there.

“Hey, it’s pretty cool up here. You guys should come up.”

Almost immediately Sasuke’s hands were clutching the sides of the ladder. Naruto moved back onto the wooden flooring to let him up. A cloud of dust flew up and he coughed a little, brushing off his pants and making sure not to get too close to the walls.

Sakura joined them a few seconds later.

“It’s so dusty! It’s getting all in my jacket”, Sakura gasped, spluttering, and Naruto turned back to help her. Sasuke beat him to it, reaching a hand back to pull her to her feet before Naruto could move.

The three of them moved slowly, sticking close together.

“Be careful”, said Sasuke while they wandered further and further from where they had entered, “some of these boards feel creaky and kind of damp.”

There were a few old cardboard boxes intermittently lining the walls on either side. Through the cracks and holes in them Naruto could see that most of them filled with uninteresting things like old shower curtains, some old carpet and mugs. The walls sloped down on either side, and they had to crouch to peer inside the ones that were sealed up with tape.

Sakura was knelt on the floor by a cluster of smaller boxes, looking through them, and Sasuke had wandered on ahead a few steps. Naruto moved to catch up with him and gasped.

Both of his friends’ eyes flitted over to him.

The floorboard where he had just stepped had given slightly beneath his weight and, now he looked closely, he saw there was a small gap by it, through which he could just make out a toilet in the bathroom of what must be one of the abandoned rooms.

Sakura and Sasuke were still staring.

“Be careful there, there’s a hole”, he whispered.

Sakura gave him an affirmative nod. Her lips were pressed tightly together. Naruto could see a cobweb in her hair. He figured it wasn’t the best time to point that out to her, now that they were trying to be quiet.

They rounded the corner, keeping their steps light. Trying to imagine the layout below, Naruto figured that they had to be walking away from where the staff room was. Good. The further away they were, the less likely it was they would be heard.

Above the corridor where Konohamaru and his friends lived, the boxes changed. They seemed older, damp and at some places moldy. The tears in the boxes seemed less like holes that had been chewed and more like simply time wearing away at them. Their contents seemed to change as well; old paperwork and files instead of appliances and carpet.

The walls themselves seemed older too, which was ridiculous, because Naruto knew that the house was all built at the same time. They could have been renovated, he supposed, but he couldn’t see any obvious line where the sloping walls changed in color; it was a gradual fade from golden to a murky grey-brown, with more chips and scratches in the beams than before. Leftover carvings and graffiti adorned the walls, and Sakura drifted away from the boys to take them in.

“Look.” Her words were hushed. “That has to be Tsunade and Jiraiya.”

The graffiti she pointed to was a series of smiley faces, signed with a ‘ _J_ ’ and a ‘ _T_ ’.

“Oh yeah”, Naruto said wonderingly, moving his face close to it. He knew Jiraiya had lived here before, as well as Tsunade, but when had they been up here? Had they been as young as he was now? Had they knelt on the soft old wood and giggled in the dim light as they scratched their initials?

He jumped and drew back as a spider scuttled into view. His eyes found more graffiti etched a few feet along, and he turned to that.

There was more than he had thought. Up close, as with the boxes, it didn’t appear as though it all came from the same time; some were scratched deeper than others, and the edges of some cuts were smoother. It must have been kids who lived below and had ventured into the attic over the years. A lot of them had probably lived in the now-abandoned hallway where the hatch was. How long ago had they come up here? Perhaps they were still here, as ghosts. Naruto shuddered.

There was one with two names- _Homura_ and _Koharu_ \- written together. Naruto wondered who they were. The names weren’t familiar. Further along, there another where someone had carved his name, _Madara_ , and then, smaller and shakier below, _Izuna_.

“I wish I had a knife or something.”

“Me too.” Naruto realized Sakura’s hand was holding his arm through his jacket, and he smiled.

Sasuke was frowning down the corridor.

Naruto hadn’t noticed when he first looked down, but now he saw; the wall was jutting out in one place, like a small cubicle.

“What is that?”, asked Sakura.

Without answering her, Naruto began to inch closer, and she moved with him. Sasuke drew in nearer on his other side.

“It’s… Not wood?”

It wasn’t. From a distance it looked similar to the rest of the encroaching walls, almost the same color, but now he could see that it was some kind of plywood material. Thinner, flexible. Breakable.

Naruto took another step closer.

Sakura’s hand slipped from his arm, tensing into a ball at her side. “Wait- what if there’s someone living there? Nobody ever comes up here, there could be a man ready to kill us for disturbing his secret hiding place.”

That gave him pause. Yet just for a moment, as then he saw Sasuke rolling his eyes and took another step forward.

He laid his palms flat against the material. It was smooth and cold, like the skin of a snake. Giving a gentle push yielded the expected results; it flexed under his weight.

It broke apart easier and quieter than he had anticipated, one of the large boards simply snapping as he leans his shoulder onto it.

Inside, sitting in the square middle of the space- which wasn’t very big at all- was a box. Naruto thought, if this was a horror movie, this would be the part where they release the ghost that eventually murders them all.

To his surprise, Sakura was the one to approach first, kicking the bottom shard of plywood down and stepping over. He hurried on her heels.

It wasn’t a simple flap-top box like the others. It was sturdy, with a heavy lid on top. Naruto leaned over Sakura as she shifted the lid off, Sasuke standing a couple of steps behind with a weary look creasing his pale face.

The lid itself came off smoothly; it was only really sitting on top of the stack of papers inside.

Sakura lifted the top few sheets and peered at them.

“What are they?”

“Something about money. I think they’re tax forms.”

“Oh.”

He peered at the various figures and names- _Kagami, Hiruzen, Danzou_ \- and sighed in disappointment, running one hand through his hair.

Sakura went to put them back, then paused and lifted up some of the other papers, before grabbing a whole stack and hefting them out onto the floor.

“What are these?”

Naruto took the ones she held out, and immediately wrinkled his nose and tilted his head. From the thick heavy lines in unfamiliar characters it was clear that the writing was in a different language.

“I…” Naruto flipped the pages over, taking in the back and front. “I don’t know.”

“They look old”, Sasuke said.

“They’re weird.” She passed one to him, who had edged closer. The pages flapped loudly. “I can’t figure them out.”

There was a noise below and the three of them jumped. Naruto locked eyes with Sasuke, who stood with one page held aloft in his hand.

Somewhere far below, someone was calling Naruto’s name.

“What is that?”, Sakura whispered.

“A ghost?”, Naruto stammered, and Sakura stood up and elbowed him, snatching the pages back from both him and Sasuke as she did so.

“No”, said Sasuke, “listen.”

The voice came again, louder now. Kakashi. He must be in the corridor below. Naruto took a few steps along the corridor, wincing at the noise he made.

There was a pause and then Kakashi called, much clearer; “Hello? Sasuke?”

Naruto turned and frantically motioned for them to follow him. Sakura leaned down and grabbed a stack from the floor, beginning to stuff them back into the box.

Not waiting, Naruto moved quietly back past the graffiti, around the corner, and then weaved around some of the boxes. When he turned back Sasuke and Sakura were just rounding the corner, Sakura with one hand clinging to the back of Sasuke’s jacket and the other crossed over her chest. Naruto indicated silently to the hole in the floor and Sasuke nodded.

They made it back to the ladder and clambered down as silently as they could manage. As soon as they were down, Naruto and Sakura each grabbed one side of the ladder and pushed it back up into place, half-throwing it so that it slid back up into the attic.

‘How are we going to get the hatch back up?’, Sasuke asked in a hissed voice, and Naruto’s brain turned into a sheet of panicked scrawls.

“Naruto”, Kakashi called again, although this time he sounded more distant.

Naruto looked around, and then grabbed the handle of the broom and raised it in the air once more. It wavered wildly for a moment until he finally gained control and began hammering at the latch.

“What are you doing?”, Sakura asked in a horrified tone.

Naruto ignored her until the latch was broken clean off, dropping to the floor with a ping and skidding down the corridor, then turned to them. “If anyone asks, we were just playing ball inside and it hit the latch and broke and we were too scared to tell anyone. Okay?”

That would only get them in marginally less trouble, but still less than if Tsunade ever found out they had gone into the attic.

They nodded and Naruto turned and raced back along the passage, practically vaulting the gate. He could practically hear adrenaline coursing through his body. Sakura followed, and Sasuke had only just climbed over when Kakashi rounded the corner by the staffroom and nearly ran into them.

Naruto struggled to relax and look casual, resting his hands on his hips. To his left, he could see Sakura standing with her arms crossed and, to his right, Sasuke with his hands in his pockets.

Kakashi stared down at them with a blank expression. Naruto realized he hadn’t seen Kakashi since their prank the other day and felt even more afraid.

But Kakashi only said; “I was calling you.”

“We heard you. So, we came here.”

He looked at them with narrowed eyes, and then over their heads. Down the corridor. “You haven’t been in that… Blocked off area, have you?”

“No”, the three of them answered in chorus.

“Well, we did lose our ball there, but we didn’t break anything with it, I swear”, Naruto continued, scratching his head, and Sakura dug her elbow into his ribs.

There was a long silence. Naruto looked at Sasuke: He was pretty good at feigning boredom, it seemed, his face blank as he gazed disinterestedly off into the distance. Or perhaps he really was just bored. He looked to Sakura. She still had a cobweb in her hair. Her eyes were slightly wider than usual, the pitch-black pupils swallowing up her light green irises. He glanced back up to Kakashi and saw the worker was watching him directly. He wondered how his own face looked.

“Right.” Kakashi’s eyes continued to bore into Naruto’s face for several seconds longer before he broke the contact and looked away. ‘That explains the banging, then.’

“Haha, yeah…”

“Well”, Kakashi, weirdly, seemed to smile all of a sudden, cheeks rising up and eyes crinkling. “I guess I’d better go let Izumo and Kotetsu know that they’ve got another job to do.”

They took that as their cue to depart.

*

Naruto was on the verge of sleep when the creaking of his door woke him.

He had only just made it back to bed after slipping out once more, into the corridor, with a ball in his hand, planning to plant it in the hallway to ensure it looked like they had just been playing. However Izumo and Kot had been there, Kotetsu standing on the top of the ladder as Izumo held the bottom, looking at the latch. _The one time they decided to fix something as soon as it had broken, and it had to be this time._ Naruto had decided to abort the mission and left the ball just inside the door of his and Sasuke’s room instead, so that Iruka would see it if he came in.

He looked across to see Sasuke sitting up in his bed, the light pooling in from the corridor already striking him. A shadow moved across the floor and to the center of the room.

Naruto reached out and switched on his nightlight, and Sakura blinked at him.

“What are you doing here?”, Sasuke asked. “It’s late.”

“I know”, she told him, “But look.”

And then she began to rummage around under her top. Naruto looked away, turning red. _What the hell was she doing?_

“Look”, she said again, and Naruto glanced up. She was holding something in her hand. She took a step closer and knelt on the floor in between the beds, holding whatever it was in her lap. Naruto craned over for a better view. “I hid them under my jacket. I thought they were just some random scrawls but I was looking at them just now and it’s some kind of foreign language.”

It was the papers, from the attic.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look. _When did she have time to do that? And how did we not notice?_

Blinking away his confusion, Naruto grabbed his phone from the table beside his lamp. “I can look it up.”

He wasn’t too sure what to even begin searching, but alphabets seemed to be a good place to start.

Unfortunately, there were more alphabets in the world than he had anticipated. In the several minutes it took him to scroll through the long list he found and narrow it down to a few candidates, Sasuke had scooted out of bed and was knelt beside Sakura, the two of them holding the writing to the lamplight and in deep debate about whether the signature at the bottom was actually kanji or some odd symbol that was meant to be a code.

Finally, he grabbed at the top letter in Sakura’s grip, steadying it under the glow of the lamp and squinting from his phone to the page and back. The smell of dust hit the back of his throat and he cleared it with a small cough.

“Did you find it?”, Sasuke asked.

“I think so.”

“What do you mean, you ‘think so’?”

“I can’t tell. It looks the same but it’s difficult to see the writing!”

“Let me see, then!” Sasuke moved forward to peer over Naruto’s shoulder.

“Shut up, you two, keep quiet”, Sakura snapped, before pushing them both aside to look at the screen.

Naruto and Sasuke joined her on either side, and the three stared for a long moment.

Sakura said; “That does look like it.”

“It’s Russian”, Sasuke said, frowning. “What does it say?”

“How should I know?”, Naruto snapped back at him and then brightened up. “I’ll show it to Shikamaru!” Shikamaru was bound to know: He was super smart, especially with languages. His family was from Europe too, and Naruto was pretty sure they came from somewhere in the East. Perhaps even Russia.

“Google Translate is a thing, Naruto”, Sakura sighed.

“Oh, yeah.”

Trying to enter everything right on the Russian keyboard was absurdly difficult, especially when Sakura and Sasuke kept telling him that he was picking the wrong characters.

In the end it was fruitless; nothing came up beside a few random words that made no sense.

“Are you sure it’s not just random nonsense?”, asked Naruto.

Sakura folded her arms. “I’m sure. Look, they’re all signed the same way. They have to be some kind of letters- or…”

“But what would something written in Russian be doing in the roof here?”, Sasuke demanded.

“Maybe it was a spy”, Naruto suggested. The other two looked at him, with contempt that gave way to contemplation.

“But why-”

The sound of footsteps cut off Sasuke’s question.

Naruto switched off the light and plunged them into darkness. He could hear Sakura and Sasuke’s breaths and tried to match his own to their steady pace.

Once the footsteps had passed, he switched it back on.

Sakura’s eyes were wide as she hugged the letters to her chest. “I’m going to bed”, she murmured. “We have school tomorrow.”

Sasuke abruptly clambered back into bed, and Naruto settled back on his own.

“Goodnight”, Naruto whispered as Sakura tiptoed her way to the door, and she gave him a small smile in return before slipping from the room.

He reached to turn out the light. Sasuke was still laying with his eyes open across the room, staring at the ceiling. Naruto stopped and looked at his roommate, the crease between his eyes. _Was he thinking about the letters, too?_ It was interesting. A mystery.

One hand still on his lamp, Naruto whispered; “What if it was a spy, though?”

“Naruto, turn the light off and go to sleep.”

“But it could be.” Naruto imagined it. A spy forced to hide out at a children’s home. Maybe it was Kakashi. He was mysterious. Or, perhaps it was Jiraiya. There had been a _J_ scratched up there, in the roof. And it made sense that he would have to be away a lot, traveling, and could only return occasionally to store his secrets.

He wished Jiraiya was there so he could ask.

But then the letters looked really old, even older than Jiraiya. Maybe back when the home was still a big family estate someone had been a spy. He could picture it, people wearing old fashioned clothes, real old-fashioned espionage carried out by the upper-class gentleman and his faithful servants-

“Naruto, turn the light off at least if you aren’t going to sleep.”

Naruto turned the light off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler: They're not French.


	4. Chapter 4

It was truly incredible, Naruto thought. Even under the bright fluorescent lights of the cafeteria, Shikamaru was still capable of falling asleep.

Although Naruto had specifically asked him for his help with the letters, the boy had simply come in and sat down, looked at where Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were poring over the yellowed pages and set his head down for a nap.

_Does he not sleep at night?_ Naruto didn’t really sleep much at night, but the wonderful smells of the home-cooked lunches the other kids brought always enticed him into sitting wide awake through lunch, hunger and jealousy vying for dominance in his belly. In fact, lunch was about the only time in the whole school day that he was wide awake.

Ino and Chouji, having migrated to their usual table alongside Shikamaru, were no more helpful than he was. The two of them ate lunch together and talked quietly about their history project. At least Kiba was off sick today; if he was here, Naruto was sure he would make things worse somehow.

To make matters even doubly, triply, worse, the weird exchange student who had gotten into a fight was hovering at a nearby table, along with another weird-looking boy dressed in black and a girl in a short dress.

“They’re Algerian”, Shikamaru had informed Naruto and Sakura when the three of them had first entered the café and spotted the strange trio.

“Huh?” Naruto had turned to him as they headed to their regular table, Chouji and Ino trailing behind them. Sasuke was already seated, hands in his pockets and leaning back on his chair so that it rested against the wall. The café lights did his hair no favour, Naruto noted; it looked dull and flat, a black void. “How do you know?”

“I spoke to the girl this morning. She was across the hall from my geography room. I just asked where they were from; I was curious.”

Naruto gaped over at the tall blonde girl. She had to be older than them; her face was less rounded and more angular than most of the girls Naruto knew in his year. In fact, she and the boy in black both looked significantly older than the red-haired boy, although he seemed too young to even be at their school at all. The girl’s narrowed eyes darted in their direction momentarily, as if she knew they were speaking about her, and then she turned back to her companions. Her eyeliner was as spiky as her ponytails.

_Algerian?_ Naruto didn't think Algerian girls dressed like that, did they? But then, he didn't think Algerian boys dressed like the gothic figure beside her.

Sakura had nudged Naruto, and he realised he had stopped with his chair pulled out, one hand resting on the back. He quickly sat down. Sasuke peered at him across the table with one eyebrow raised slightly. Naruto looked away, crossing his arms and hunching over.

“I didn’t realise they taught Japanese in Algeria”, Sakura said as Shikamaru folded his arms on the table and laid his head down.

Naruto shrugged at her, mystified.

“What are you two talking about?”, Sasuke had asked, looking confused.

“Nothing.” Sakura fished the letters from her bag. “Let’s get to work.”

Which was when Shikamaru had promptly decided it was time to tap out of consciousness.

“Shikamaru, come on, wake up”, Naruto groaned, shaking his friend.

The brunet boy groaned back unintelligibly.

“Shikamaru. I need you to look at this.”

“I already told you it’s not Russian”, he muttered, turning his head back into his arms. “The alphabet is but…” The rest was muffled.

“Well, what is it then?”, demanded Naruto. There was nothing but a drawn-out beat of silence. Naruto tried again. “What is it?”

“Well”, Shikamaru muttered, finally lifting his head, “it might be a code.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sakura smiled, but Naruto only frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

Sighing, Shikamaru propped himself up on one elbow. “Look at the letters.”

“What about them?”, asked Sakura.

“Whoever wrote them wasn’t used to writing with that alphabet. Look. The first few are all sloppy and there's loads of things crossed out. It looks like a little kid wrote it.”

Sasuke started leafing through the letters. “… The last few the writing is better. Maybe they improved as they went along.”

“Exactly”, Shikamaru replies. “I don’t think they were Russian: They just didn’t want whoever it was to read what they were writing.”

“So it could still be a spy!” Naruto grinned.

But Shikamaru was shaking his head. “Whoever it was kept drawing all over the margins and backs of the pages, look.”

“It could be diagrams… Or secret instructions?”

Shikamaru fixed Naruto with a tired look. “These hearts could be secret instructions?”

Well, perhaps he had a point.

“They could be a code too!”, Naruto blustered, ignoring the fact that both Sakura and Sasuke were looking at him like they thought he was stupid.

Shikamaru put his head back down on the table. Naruto knew that move. It was what Shikamaru did when he was fed up of the conversation.

“Hey. No. Shikamaru, get up.”

Shikamaru just yawned and turned his head to look up at him.

“What?”

“Want to come over tonight and help us translate it?”

*

Sasuke had just about made his peace with Shikamaru coming over and entering the room he shared with Naruto. So when Shikamaru showed up with the blonde girl and red-haired boy he was, to put it mildly, not happy.

Shizune telling Naruto to come and collect his friends- _multiple_ \- from reception should have been the first giveaway, to be honest.

But Sasuke was trying his best to be polite for the sake of their shared project, so he simply gritted his teeth and avoided making eye contact as the three of them made their way into the room behind Naruto. Besides, Shikamaru probably was the one who would best be able to help them decipher these letters if what Naruto had said about him so far was true.

“You brought those guys?”, Sakura asked, voicing his own thoughts. The way she was frowning at them made Sasuke smirk slightly. “Just don’t steal our ideas.”

“Wouldn’t want your project anyway cos ours is going to be better”, the blonde girl told her, and stuck her tongue out.

Sakura stuck hers out in return. Whatever mild amusement she might have caused Sasuke vanished. How childish.

Much to his chagrin, the intruder straight for his bed, taking a seat right in the middle and spreading her hands to either side with slender fingers splayed, running over the covers.

“You can sit with us”, said Sakura from where the three of them had been crouched on the floor.

“No. I think it’s comfier here.”

The blonde girl smiled, and then yelped as Shikamaru slumped next to her, landing right on top of her left hand. She pulled it back and glared at her friend as she nursed it.

Chouji knelt down next to Sasuke on the floor, lowering himself down with a concentrated effort. “So what have you guys come up with so far?”

Sakura flipped a strand of hair out of her eyes as she shrugged. “Not a lot really. We were waiting for your guys.”

“Aw. How sweet”, Shikamaru drawled. He was already sprawled back on Sasuke’s bed, spiky ponytail brushing the wall where he wriggled to get comfortable.

Sasuke didn’t get why Naruto was friends with Shikamaru. There wasn’t much to like about the boy, in his opinion. Sure, Shikamaru might be smart, but that counted for nothing, not when he didn’t use that intelligence. And as for- _her name was Ino, wasn't it?_ -well, she was just as bad as Sakura, who was currently throwing shifty looks up at her friend.

There was a small rustle and Sasuke felt something touch his arm.

“Snack?”

Even with Sasuke’s only response being a cold stare, Chouji continued smiling at him.

“Oh well. More for me.”

Well, he supposed Chouji was alright. He hadn’t exactly done anything to lower himself in Sasuke’s opinion; however, he had done nothing to raise himself in it either.

Sakura began to arrange the letters, pulling out the top ones first, alongside the scrap paper where the three of them had begun to write down recurring letters and theories- mostly grasping- as to what they might stand for. Chouji shuffled over besides her so he could peek over her shoulder.

And, as Sasuke could have easily predicted, Naruto clambered clumsily to his feet, stretching and bouncing on his toes. He could never stay still or focus for long. It seemed especially worse when there were more people in the room.

The golden-haired boy flopped onto the bed besides Shikamaru and prodded him with one finger, earning him an annoyed huff. “Hey, you’d better stay awake this time.”

Sasuke balled his fists. Apparently, his bed was simply open to anyone now.

“Ino, look”, said Sakura. “This looks like you.”

The group peered at what she held in one hand.

At the bottom of one letter was a caricature of a grumpy looking man with spiky hair.

Shikamaru snorted.

A moment later Ino was flying through the air, landing with her arms looped about Sakura’s shoulders with one fist in her hair.

“Take it back!”

“Hey! Watch out for the letter!”, Chouji yelped, although his voice was drowned out by the girls screeching as they tussled.

Sasuke hoped, without fruition, that Tsunade or one of the others would hear the commotion and order the interloping trio home.

Instead, the shoving match that ensued only ended when Ino was sent sprawling to the floor in a pile. She drew herself up into a more dignified position beside Sakura, with one knee drawn up to her chest, flicking her fringe away from her eyes.

Naruto shook his head like a wet dog and then his bright blue eyes landed on the other boy still lying on the bed.

“Hey, Shikamaru, get down on the floor so you can see the letters.”

“Can’t one of you just pass them up to me?”

“No, you’re going to fall asleep. I can already see it.”

A ripple of surprise ran through Sasuke’s body when Shikamaru sighed and got to his feet, stretching. The surprise turned to revulsion as Shikamaru cracked his neck and sat down cross-legged besides Chouji.

Naruto gave a small whoop of victory and slid all of the way down the bed frame like a snake, wriggling his way to the floor legs-first. He half took Sasuke’s blankets with him.

Sasuke staked his claim to his own bed, something he shouldn’t even have to do, by yanking his blankets out from under Naruto and then sprawling across the mattress so he could watch over the others’ shoulders. His sheets smelt like the sharp perfume Ino wore, which made him scowl even harder.

Sakura held a page out towards Shikamaru. “Here, take a look.”

Ino crossed her arms. “You’re just going to give him a letter and expect him to crack the code?”

“I’m just letting him see it.”

Chouji said; “Maybe we should-”

“Naruto.” Shikamaru spoke quietly but Chouji fell silent immediately.

“Hm?”

Shikamaru’s eyes were still on the page, staring intently with his fingers linked together and his chin resting on top of them, as he murmured; “Grab a pen.”

A small pink pen with a panda on top was pressed into Naruto’s hand from the pocket of Sakura’s ruby red jacket.

Sasuke deigned to sit up on his bed for a better view while Shikamaru began dictating to Naruto what to write.

“Draw this symbol. And then, underneath, this one.”

“Why don’t I just do all of them?”

“We’ll start with the most common ones first. Here, this word is pretty short and the letters from it keep showing up; write down these. No, you’re doing it- No, that’s too- Oh, let me do it.”

Naruto shrugged as Shikamaru snatched the paper and pen from his fingers.

Although he would never admit it, it was fascinating to watch as Shikamaru wrote down certain alien symbols and began matching them up to more familiar ones.

“Come on, what’s taking so long?”, Naruto whined.

“Shush.” Sasuke nudged the back of his head with one knee and Naruto half-swivelled to glare at him.

He did not realise himself how long it was taking until sunlight hit his eyes and he saw the sun is low in the sky, low enough to peek through the small gap in their curtains.

Blinking at the window, Sasuke wiped his eyes with the back of one hand, feeling the drag of his eyelashes pulling at his heavy lids. When he turned back to the others, he was momentarily met with an entirely different scene than had been there previously.

Itachi was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a traditional haori that was far too large for him- father’s, probably- draped across his shoulders and pooling on the floorboards around him. His hands clasped an open book on the low table in front of him. Mother knelt on the other side of the table, a mug of steaming tea between her fingers. Father sat a little behind on a chair, leaning forwards contemplatively. The lights were low, their faces shadowed.

Sasuke blinked and they were gone. Replaced by Naruto and his roommate’s irritating friends. A scene less cosy and more cramped.

“Shikamaru”, Sakura tugged his sleeve and Shikamaru started, almost seeming to break out of a trance. “Explain to me so we can carry on translating it after you’ve gone home.”

“We could take them with us”, Ino suggested and was met with a steely green glare.

“No way are you stealing them.”

“Shikamaru would probably forget to finish it”, said Chouji.

“If you guys are done”, Shikamaru drawled, “I’ll explain.”

They fell silent.

He looked from narrow eyes left and right, and then up to Sasuke, who briefly caught his gaze.

“I think that whoever wrote this has written it in Cyrillic script- you know, the one Russian and other Eastern European languages use- but each of the letters stands for a different character in Hiragana. I think there are a couple of Latin letters thrown in, too.”

Sasuke frowned. How would that even w-

“How would that even work?”, asked Sakura.

“Russian? So it is a spy!” Naruto leapt to his feet, blocking Sasuke’s view.

“Naruto, just sit down”, said Ino.

Sasuke helped Naruto as he sank back to the floor with a shove in between his shoulder blades. Again Naruto turned to give him a mean look.

“It’s basic”, Shikamaru continued. “It’s basic and I don’t know how well it would work but you could probably get your point across. Who knows, maybe they got better with it later on. I’m trying to create a cypher but I can only make out a few words.”

He turned his notes around to show them all. Scrawled on the page was ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘house’, and ‘brother’. Several other letters seemed to have been scrawled down with multiple meanings beside them.

A knock at the door had them all looking up in unison.

Kurenai opened it with hardly a pause. The kids on the floor peered owlishly up at her. Sasuke crossed his arms as he raised his chin.

“Shikamaru, your father is here to take you home.” She turned, and then paused and did a full rotation back to face them. “Was that carpet always here?”

Sasuke stared at the small brown square in front of the door. Huh. That hadn’t been there before. How had he not noticed? He caught Naruto looking at him. His roommate flashed a grin, his face turned away so Kurenai couldn’t see.

Ah. That spot was where the ink stain had remained on the wooden floor of the hall in spite of Naruto and Konohamaru scrubbing at it for several minutes. Naruto must have gone back up into the attic and grabbed some of the spare carpet up there- or perhaps even took some with him the first time, Sasuke would not be surprised- in order to hide the evidence of their prank from Tsunade.

Shikamaru sighed and got to his feet, followed by Chouji and Ino. Naruto also got to his feet.

“Can I come and say hi?”

The spiky-haired boy put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Sure, Naruto. It’s just my dad, though, I don’t know why you’d want to.”

Naruto liked Shikamaru’s dad. Sasuke knew that because he was one of the many topics Naruto liked to chatter on about when Sasuke was trying to sleep. Supposedly Shikamaru was close to him, always playing board games and solving weird logic puzzles together. Naruto would often sigh in the midst of these rants and say that he wished he had a dad like that.

The four of them trailed out of the room after Kurenai and left silence in their wake.

Sasuke sighed and looked up at the ceiling, stretching, before glancing over to where Sakura was carefully pouring over the cypher, a crease between her eyebrows.

After a moment Sasuke sighed again. “Bring it over here.”

The girl jumped as though Sasuke had snuck up on her rather than having been in the room for the last few hours.

“What?”

“Bring it here. I want to look too.”

Sakura scrambled to her feet and skipped over to the bed, page in hand, plopping down beside him. It wasn’t quite what he had had in mind, but it made sense to sit together so they could both see the letter. And he supposed it wasn’t too bad when it was just the two of them leaning their heads together without anyone else around to judge.

Leaning in closer, Sasuke scrutinised the letter and the cypher with it. Now that Shikamaru had written a guide to the Cyrillic characters, it seemed much clearer and the code more obvious.

“This is…”, Sakura began. She turned to Sasuke. “Who would have come up with this?”

“A traveller maybe? Probably not anyone who lived here.” Konoha was a sleepy town. Nothing ever happened here.

They turned their attention back to the page.

By the time Naruto returned, throwing himself down besides Sakura with a grunt, they’d worked out the rest of the cypher and were in the process of decoding the first few sentences.

“What does it say?”

Sasuke squinted at the words Sakura was writing. “It begins with… ‘I am well.’”

Naruto snorted. “Boring.” He narrowed his eyes. “Unless that’s also a code for something.”

“I doubt it.”

Throughout the evening Sakura and Sasuke, with some occasional input from Naruto, were able to figure out what the other Hiragana characters stood for via the process of elimination, seeing which words would make sense together.

“Almost done with the first letter!”, Sakura announced enthusiastically, punching one hand up into the air and brushing her long hair out of her face.

“Was I right?”, asked Naruto. “Is it a spy?”

“No. I think it’s a love letter.”

“A… A love letter?!”

“It starts off normally, talking about how their brother is looking for a job, and their dad had flu but is better now, and then they’re making plans to meet up. It’s affectionate.”

“That’s boring!”

“If it was just a love letter why go to all the trouble of hiding it with a code?”, Sasuke snorted.

“Well… Perhaps they were star-crossed lovers! What if their families wouldn’t allow them to be together?”

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look. This, at least, was something they could agree on.

“Come on, it’s romantic!” Sakura’s face was flushed and her eyes bright as she wheeled between the two boys. “Besides, they look really old.”

“Do you think maybe it’s from war times?” Naruto blinked owlishly, moving to sit beside her and peer at what she had written.

“Maybe. Hey, if it is, perhaps we could use them as part of our history project!”

Sasuke asked; “Wasn’t that meant to be about the home?”

“Oh, yes…”

Naruto nudged Sakura. “But we found these in the home, so that counts as part of its history, right? The person who wrote these might even have lived here!”

Sakura brightened. “That’s right! Otherwise how else would they have ended up in the attic? There might be more about this building in there and the developments that have happened over the years. This place has changed a lot, you know.”

“Let’s do it! Let’s make this our project!”

Sasuke sighed and folded his arms across his chest, leaning back to rest against his pillows. He had actually begun to look forward to learning more about his family history. Now it felt like that had been snatched away again.

Still, the more he thought about the idea, the more he liked it. He didn’t want to share his entire family history with his class. And even if they were dumb love letters, they were still a mystery. Something to be solved. Sasuke was somehow sure that there were yet more secrets that the letters would yield before the end of their project.

Besides, whatever the mystery was, it was probably more interesting than anything to do with his family.

*

On the one hand, Kakashi’s rota finally being sorted meant that he knew when his shifts would be.

On the other, the fact that Tsunade had given him his fair share of fortnightly night shifts meant that he was going to be seeing Gai a lot more.

He had once more been sitting in the staffroom with nothing and everything at the same time on his mind when Gai had nudged him and asked him if he wanted to join him on one of his nightly rounds. And Kakashi, well, he hadn’t had much better to do. After an uncomfortable half an hour spent trying to sleep in the cots and listening to Raidou snoring, he had come to the terms with the fact that he wouldn’t’ be sleeping that night.

So, Kakashi put his hands in his pockets and stood up to slouch out of the staffroom door behind Gai.

Somewhere to his back, Genma tilted his head and sighed into his hand. From Kakashi’s standing perspective, all that could be seen of him was the black of his bandana and rectangles of curled knuckles underneath. “You know, you don’t have to go checking all the time, Gai. The kids will survive.”

Gai didn’t look at him, planting himself in the middle of the doorway with his hands on his hips. “I take my duty of care seriously.”

When Kakashi moved towards the door, he saw that Genma was rolling his eyes, although he hadn’t stopped smiling either.

Stepping out into the corridor from the warm staff room was like stepping onto the moon. Everything was shadow and the occasional harsh window of pale light. The air was still and cold, somehow seeming crisper at night than the dusty atmosphere- _that smell is the smell of history_ , Tsunade had told him when he first started- that lingered during the day.

Kakashi watched Gai walking slightly ahead of him, the way his frame shifted from onyx to silver and back again whenever they walked past a ray of light. When they reached the reception, all lit up from the skylight but still oddly spectral without Shizune there to greet them, Kakashi found himself looking down at his own hands, enjoying seeing the silver on them too.

When they reached the corner and the common room, the next corridor was pitch-black.

Instead of carrying on along it, however, Gai headed towards the enclave by the small break room. Kakashi followed him wordlessly.

Just inside the door, Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks.

A girl was smiling at him from the darkness.

She looked just like Rin.

It took him a moment to gather his wits and realise that it was simply a poster, and the girl didn’t look so much like Rin as she had appeared in his initial glance. Her eyes were too dark, the hair too long and course. It was just something about the eyes and the expression, a smile and a hand wave.

Gai was halfway through a sentence before Kakashi even recognised that he was speaking.

The man was leaning against the small table in the corner by the window, perched beside the white kettle they kept there. “… And Lee was telling me that they’re doing the same project he did last year.”

Swallowing, Kakashi made an effort to be an active participant in the conversation. “Who are?”

A pair of dark eyes stared up at him, anxious lines forming around them. “Kakashi, were you even listening? Naruto and Sakura and Sasuke are doing a history project.”

Kakashi looked away and hunched over. “Oh, are they?”

“Yes! My Lee has already offered his services in assisting them, of course. They said his research was not needed, but it was good of him to offer.”

He sounded like a proud father, Kakashi thought. He tuned out as Gai continued to talk about Rock Lee.

The girl was still staring at him from the wall.

It was the eyes, he decided. Like they were trying to tell him something. Smiling yet desperate.

Gai was laughing hysterically. “I heard about Naruto’s prank the other day, too.”

“Yeah.”

“Konohamaru told me they wanted to see you without your mask. Why _do_ you wear that all the time?”

Kakashi shrugged and turned away from the poster. “It’s just something I’ve done since I was a kid.”

“Oh, like a comfort thing?”

Kakashi looked directly at him, his almost black eyes, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the route the conversation was taking. “Does it really matter?”

Gai stared back for a moment, silent. His mouth formed a small ‘o’.

He wasn’t about to apologise for snapping: It was none of Gai’s business, after all. Still, he found himself hoping he hadn’t upset his co-worker too badly.

However, instead of getting angry or upset, Gai grinned his broad twinkling grin. “I guess not. It’s incredible, though, having your own- thing, what’s the word? Like a calling card?” He shook his head and then gave a thumbs up. “It makes you stand out.”

Well, that was the first time anyone had called any of his odd traits incredible.

They made their way back out into the hall, and Kakashi was glad. He was beginning to feel… Enclosed in the small space.

“Like you, always wearing green?” Kakashi arched one brow.

Gai’s grin spread so that it seemed to take over his entire face. “Exactly!” His eyes stretched wide, almost as if he was shocked by what Kakashi was saying. “You get it!”

Buoyed by his own enthusiasm, Gai began to punch and kick his ways through the hallways, randomly in almost a parody of kung fu, but too well-choreographed to be a complete parody.

Again, Kakashi thought, he had nice form. He could tell him that maybe. It might make him stop giving a loud Kihap every time he kicked or punched. And there was no harm in letting Gai know what he thought.

“You have nice form”, Kakashi told him.

“Thanks!” It worked. Gai ceased kicking and shouting, although he didn’t relax his stance. “I challenge you to beat me!”

A fire Kakashi didn’t realise he still had lit his veins. He didn’t let it show, giving the taller man a single nod of ascent. “Alright.”

He walked a few more steps until they reached the corner where the corridor met the dining hall and, as they rounded it, lifted one leg and swung it through the air above his hip. It was an almost perfect turning kick, he had to admit, especially considering how out of practise he was. His pleasure grew when he looked back over his shoulder to find Gai still standing in the middle of the hallway, mouth hanging open. He tried to keep the smile off his face and tucked his chin back down under the neck of his sweater.

“Kakashi… That was amazing! How did you do that? Have you been practising?” Gai narrowed his eyes suddenly. “Have you been training to best me in combat, maybe?”

Kakashi’s smile grew wider, but he rolled his shoulders and put his palms up to the ceiling, feigning nonchalance. “Nah. I did taekwondo for twelve years. I only stopped two years ago.”

“Why did you stop? That was great! We should never give up training our bodies and minds!”

And all of a sudden Kakashi’s smile was gone. “There was an accident. A car accident. I wasn’t really hurt, only a few bruises, but… I guess I just didn’t feel like it after that.”

Gai was quiet for a moment. He appreciated that. Until he looked at Gai and realised that the man had tears in his eyes. Then he was just alarmed.

“I’m sorry, Kakashi”, his co-worker choked out.

“You don’t have to be”, Kakashi replied, more harshly than he intended. “It’s nothing to do with you.”

“But if it’s to do with you and you’re telling me about it, it’s kind of to do with me?” It sounded like Gai was trying to be funny, only it fell flat.

“I’m not telling you about it though. I don’t want to tell you. Gai, talk about something else again.”

Gai stared at him. Kakashi kept his eyes fixed firmly ahead. He was a little worried that he had upset him, but Kakashi had spoken as calmly and directly as possible and Gai should be mature enough about that. Fortunately, Gai launched into a spiel about the importance of consuming fish oil to help brain development and its alternatives without hesitation.

Kakashi tried not to make too much noise as he let out the deep breath he’d been holding onto. He was glad that the fabric over his mouth somewhat masked it.

Out of nowhere a heavy arm settled about his shoulders and pulled tight.

“Well, Kakashi, we’d better keep moving. That way we can get back to the staff room and you can relax like you want.”

Kakashi froze at the close contact, reminding himself to breathe and not react. “I don’t mind.”

“Genma has most likely gone to sleep by now. Perhaps you can read one of those books you like so much, eh?”, Gai joked, releasing Kakashi’s neck and digging his elbow into Kakashi’s side instead. Kakashi could feel Gai’s warmth against his back, the muscular expanse of his chest.

He drew away, putting enough distance between them that someone could have easily walked through the gap without touching either Kakashi or Gai.

“I’ll lend you one if you’re interested.” Kakashi shrugged. He imagined Gai reading Icha Icha. Would he enjoy it?

Gai suddenly, oddly, looked away, and slouched down a little.

“What?”

“I… I read the blurb for one of them once. You’d fallen asleep reading it and I was… Curious”, Gai admitted with a laugh that sounded more like a nervous chuckle than his usual raucous guffaw. “I don’t think it was…” He struggled for words. That was new. “My thing.”

“That’s your loss.”

“And a truly tragic loss, that I was not gifted with the ability to enjoy fine works of literature like you yourself had been.”

Kakashi stared at him for a beat. From anybody else, he would have taken that as sarcasm. And he wasn’t sure that it wasn’t, coming from Gai.

“I know! We can swap! You read one of my fitness books, I read one of your… Novels.”

“I’d rather not.”

Gai shrugged. “To each their own. It’s great when your friends have different interests than yourself because you get to see their passions, even if you do not understand them yourself!”

Kakashi remembered something Rin had once said, along those lines. That had been in the early days, when she had been encouraging Kakashi and Obito to stop arguing. It would still take a few months for her to realise her efforts were futile and to begin to revel in the chaos.

It took him a moment to realise that they were back at the staff room door and that Gai had paused as though awaiting an answer to a question Kakashi wasn’t sure he had asked. The man’s face was hidden in the shadow of the doorframe.

“I guess so.” Kakashi shrugged and headed inside the blindingly bright lights.

*

It was late afternoon, not quite evening yet, although the sunlight filtering in through the windows came less blinding-white and more pale gold now. The days may have been growing shorter, but that Monday had felt incredibly long. Sakura had been itching all day to run home and carry on deciphering the letters. She had even been unable to concentrate on what Ino was saying to her at break.

“What does it say, Sasuke?”, she asked, leaning forwards to rest her cheek against her folded arms and letting her hair spill out across her shoulders. Usually, she would have felt a little more self-conscious- sitting backwards on a chair was hardly ladylike- but now she was too tired to really concern herself with it. Her head was elsewhere.

“It says that he’s thinking of her each day, even when…” He paused, frowning, and checked his notes. “Even when he’s working, he’s thinking of when he can slip out from his house and go to her arms and feel like he’s coming home.”

“That is so romantic!” That was the kind of love that Sakura wanted: The kind of love that felt like more than love, that felt like belonging.

Naruto wrinkled his nose. “Well, I don’t see the appeal.”

Sakura sighed as she swivelled to stare at him, sitting across the room from Sasuke on his own bed. A letter was in his hands but he had given up deciphering it after little more than five minutes.

Sometimes, she had to admit, Naruto was okay. He showed signs of becoming more mature. Other times, like this, he was just as annoying as ever.

Instead of beginning an argument, she turned her attention back to Sasuke, setting her head back against the chair. “Tell me some more.”

Sasuke stared down at the letters with a crease between his eyebrows. His fingertips traced softly against the blankets on his bed, and Sakura found herself watching them and blushing a little. The dark-haired boy was just opening his mouth to speak when…

“When are we going to get to the interesting parts?”

Naruto was making it so very hard not to get into a fight.

Before she could do something that she may or may not regret, depending on whether Naruto tattled to Iruka afterwards, a soft knock sounded at the door and Shizune stepped inside.

Sakura sat up with a grin on her face, anger at Naruto forgotten.

“Oh, Sakura! I didn’t expect to find you here. Sorry if I was interrupting a game.”

“No, Shizune, not at all”, Sakura beamed.

“I must say, your hair is beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Tsunade probably told her to be supportive.

Shizune nodded her head. “I only came to let Sasuke know that his brother was here to speak with him.”

“His…?”

Sakura turned to Sasuke with a question on her face, only to find he had already stood and was stalking towards the door. She couldn’t see his eyes to meet them.

As soon as he was out of the room, Shizune gently shut the door behind him. “Naruto, Sakura, you two have a nice evening if I don’t see you before I go home.”

The room was completely silent for a moment.

Feeling as if she were in shock, Sakura stood up to tidy the now-forgotten letters away into the small plastic tray she had found to house them in. Naruto watched her with an almost suspicious look as he lounged on his bed with his head hanging upside down over the edge. After she had finished putting the letters away and patted them down flat several times, she remained kneeling on the floor.

Eventually, Sakura said; “Sasuke never mentioned that he had a brother.” She tried not to let her voice show that she felt somewhat hurt: She thought Sasuke had been growing closer to them, opening up. How could they not have known he had a brother?

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto sit upright and cross his legs. “Sasuke mentioned him to me a couple of times.” He shrugged. “He said he was coming to take him away. I just never really thought about it after he said it.”

And Sakura wasn’t sure what hurt more: That Sasuke told Naruto and not her, or the prospect of his leaving them behind.

“But he’ll still be at the same school as us, right?”, she demanded, fighting the panic which closed up her throat. Finally, she was settled here, just getting used to the people, getting closer to somebody she liked, and…

“I don’t know. I didn’t realise he meant his brother would come so soon.”

“I can’t believe he didn’t say anything.”

She drew her knees up to her chest and let her head fall down on top of her folded arms, her back up against Sasuke’s bed. Who would take that bed when he was gone, Sakura wondered? Some stranger. Would he have dark hair like Sasuke? Would he be older, or younger? Would he want to spend time with her and Naruto, indulge in their games? She knew Sasuke acted like he didn’t really want to, but he still went along with them most of the time. What if the new stranger wouldn’t? But then she wouldn’t want some stranger to come in taking Sasuke’s place either, playing with them like Sasuke had never even been there, had never been a part of their games.

“It’s funny”, she heard Naruto say over the blood suddenly rushing in her ears, and she raised her head to look at him, wiping at the fringe which clung uncomfortably to her clammy forehead with the back of her hand, “One of the words we’ve found, that keeps being repeated in the letters, is ‘brother’.”

“Whoever it was had a lot of brothers, maybe”, said Sakura.

“Or just one that they were close to”, Naruto suggested.

Sakura looked at the letters in their little tray: No longer lying flat now that they had been disturbed but lined and seeming to rise up in the air. She tried to picture who might have written them and couldn’t.

“You know, I-” Naruto stopped. “I always dreamed about having a brother.”

She drummed her fingers nervously against her arms before admitting; “I always dreamed about having a sister.” No, not so much a sister. A friend.

She thought Naruto must have known what she meant though, because he said; “A sister would have been alright too, I guess. Just anyone who would stay.”

When Sakura looked up at him again it almost felt like she was seeing him properly for the first time, his blond hair almost a dusty grey in the shadows and his round face crumpled into a frown. She had the sense that, even though they hadn’t been in the same situation, they understood how they were both feeling in that moment.

Because Naruto was here all along. While she was moving around, flitting from home to home like a small bird with a frantically beating heart, Naruto was here, and he was watching everyone around him come and go. It was so easy to imagine little Naruto, all alone in this big building with the tall walls of the corridors surrounding him as the other kids his age just passed through.

She wanted to say something, to tell him she knew, that she felt the same.

Except Sasuke’s footsteps sounded in the corridor and then he was inside the room with them, and for perhaps the first time Sakura wished he wasn’t there.

She shuffled out of the way as he made a beeline for his bed, sitting down in silence and squirming back so he was leant against the wall.

“Sasuke? What happened?”

“What did your brother say?”, asked Naruto.

“Is he really going to take you away?”

Sasuke didn’t look at either of them.

“Sasuke?”

He still didn’t look as he spoke.

“My brother isn’t taking me away. Not right now.”

Sakura felt a wave of relief wash over her, only for it to be tempered by Sasuke’s next words.

“He wants to, but he can’t. So, we can’t be together.”

Without another word, he laid down and faced the wall.

They put the letters away for the rest of the evening.

*

It was just after seven when the shouting began.

Only this time it seemed worse than before.

Bad enough that Hinata tiptoed towards the door, across the plush cream carpet of her bedroom, to listen. She rested one hand on the wood. Any words that drifted upstairs were muted and dulled by it beyond recognition. However, she could hear the stress on certain syllables and knew what was likely happening. She curled her fingers into a fist against the door.

“What does daddy want?”

Hinata looked down, blinking. She hadn’t realised how long she’d had her eyes open for: They stung and swam.

When they cleared, she saw Hanabi’s pale oval face staring up at her from a neatly parted curtain of dark hair. One small hand came up to tug at the bottom of her nightgown.

“Hinata?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go find out.” Hinata gave her a smile that she hoped wasn’t as shaky as she felt. “Wait here.”

Her heart thudded so hard in her chest as she opened the bedroom door that she wondered whether the force of it would make her entire body quake. Still, her feet remained steady as she stepped quietly into the hall and smoothly shut the door behind her.

Silent steps carried her across the landing to the top of the stairs: The skill of a child grown up in a house where going unnoticed was often a blessing.

Reaching the bannister, she laid one hand on top of the gleaming white surface. Her own face, distorted by the strokes of the paint, stared back at her, unrecognisable.

Dad was still yelling.

Hinata raised one foot, letting it hover above that first step, then drew it back.

A new voice joined in: Neji. More frantic than her father’s and rising in pitch, until at last it was cut off with a high yelp.

She retreated back to the safety of the bedroom, walking backwards steadily and reaching for the doorknob behind her with a trembling outstretched hand before turning and clinging to it like a drowning woman.

The click as she closed the door behind her made her take a sharp breath, both sounds exacerbated by the sudden quiet. It was several seconds before she opened her eyes.

Hanabi was sitting perfectly still on Hinata’s bed, her little legs dangling over the edge and her hands folded neatly on her lap.

Her dark eyes were wide when she asked; “Hinata? What was wrong with daddy?”

Hinata made her way over to the bed and slipped in beside her sister, folding the white sheets over her arms and then wrapping them about both of them as she pulled her little sister into a hug. “Nothing. It’s all okay.”

She pulled the blankets further over their head, piling them in a warm snowy fortress.

The crashing sounds started below.

Hinata stroked Hanabi’s hair and let her hand fall to rest against her sister’s ear. “Everything is okay.”


	5. Chapter 5

“She has a crush on Sasuke.”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

_Why were boys so stupid?_

“Do you think she’s ignoring us on purpose?”

“Hmmm. Yes. Hey, can I have some of those?”

“Get your own! … I don’t know why she even likes him, he’s annoying as hell with that terrible attitude of his.”

Ino finally decided to engage her idiotic best friends.

“What?” She flicked her hair and put her hands on her hips. “He’s just hot, okay?”

Out of the corner of her eye, almost masked by the flick of her hair, she caught Chouji mouthing; “Really.”

She decided to ignore it. Perhaps they would drop the subject.

Or perhaps Shikamaru would pursue it since he clearly loved to irritate her so much.

In between mouthfuls of chips, he said; “Ino, you go through so many guys. I swear you liked Naruto before, then it was Kiba-”

“Maybe she’s just after all of our friends”, commented Chouji.

She raised her eyebrows, dancing ahead a few steps so she could half-turn back to face them both. “Oh, so Sasuke is your friend now, is he?”

Shikamaru and Chouji, faltering in their steps, looked at each other. After a long moment of silence, Chouji shrugged.

Sasuke had started spending more time with their group lately, something In appreciated, although he still largely kept to himself. He was mysterious. Ino wished he would talk a little more, but Sakura thought it was cool. She guessed it was. She had seen him smile for the first time last Friday, albeit at a dumb joke Naruto told.

When the three of them fell back into step together, Ino added; “And anyway, I never liked Naruto, so shut up.”

Chouji and Shikamaru exchanged a look across her path that indicated they didn’t believe her. Whatever. She hadn’t, so those two could believe whatever they wanted.

In any case, it was Sakura’s pink hair that she spotted first that morning, before Naruto’s bright yellow mess or Sasuke’s neatly groomed black locks. It stood out among all the black and white uniforms. Ino was jealous, in a way, not that she’d ever tell Sakura. Her parents would never let her dye her hair like that.

Although she supposed, it wasn’t Sakura’s _parents_ who had allowed it.

“Look, there they are.” Ino tugged Shikamaru’s arm. “Let’s catch them up!”

Without another word she skipped on ahead, skidding to a halt at Naruto’s side with a “hey” as they passed through the gates. It was several seconds before the boys appeared behind them, Shikamaru with his hands in his pockets and an exaggerated slouch, something he only seemed to do when it wasn’t just the three of them around.

As they wandered past a row of benches filled with chattering students, the caw of birds ringing above, Chouji asked; “How is it going with decoding the letters?”

“Oh!” Sakura’s eyes lit up and she grasped Chouji’s arm. “We’ve done two of the letters so far!”

Naruto crossed his arms, looking for a little longer than a moment like a six-year-old. “They’re boring.”

“So I take it it’s not spies then?”, asked Ino.

“No, not spies”, Naruto replied, in a tone that was sadder than Ino thought it should have been, as though he had genuinely been expecting it to be spies and he was now disappointed. “It’s some dumb love letters.”

“It’s not dumb”, Sakura chimed in. “It’s interesting. It’s like, forbidden love.”

Ino’s gaze traveled from Naruto and Sakura’s exaggerated expressions, the boy with his pouting and the girl with her wistful look, across to Sasuke. His face was startlingly blank in comparison, almost bored. Ino got that. If she lived with Naruto and Sakura she would probably get bored with their bickering as well.

Shikamaru handed the nearly empty bag of chips to Chouji, who upended the remaining fragments into his waiting mouth. “So who wrote it?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to work out. We found them at the home so somebody must have been writing to someone living there. But they don’t use any names or anything like that."

Ino frowned at Sakura. “Is there nothing in the letters, like, clues that you can use?”

“The writer does mention having a brother”, said Naruto.

“But then a lot of people have brothers”, Sakura retorted.

“Not a lot of people in the home, though.”

“Maybe not now, but it might have been different back when these were written.”

“Do you know when they were written?”, Chouji asked, rolling the empty chip packet into a crinkling ball in his hand.

Sakura deflated. “No.”

“It’s going to be even more difficult if you’ve only got one side of the story, too”, Shikamaru said, sticking his hands in his pockets and slouching.

“We might use it for our history project. We’ve already found some stuff about the town in the old days in there.”

Ino’s ponytail brushed her neck as she turned to look at Sasuke. He spoke quietly, not looking at anybody else in the group.

Naruto burst out; “Did you know there used to be a big market just outside the town?”

“I hope whoever wrote them had a happy ending”, whispered Sakura. “Maybe they got married.”

Ino snorted. “That sounds boring.”

“It does”, echoed Sasuke.

Sakura’s face crumpled slightly, and Ino felt an icy hand clutch her heart. Before she could say anything else, however, Naruto spoke up.

“Can you guys hear that?”

“Huh?”

Ino could hear it now, too. Yelling.

Not many others seemed to have noticed; most of the groups gathered in the courtyard carried on talking. Glancing around, Ino saw a few small smatterings of children had fallen silent in one corner of the yard in particular, and a few kids were peering around the wall of the science rooms.

“It’s coming from over there.”

Naruto led the charge as they made their way over to see what was going on.

The sun, still low in the sky, was set at an angle so the glare shined directly on the wall they now stared at, almost like a spotlight. To begin with, Ino wasn’t quite sure what she was watching.

Neji, the cool boy in the year above, was standing with his hands fisted, obviously upset over something. Cowering against the wall, a mere shadow, was Hinata, the quiet girl in their class, instantly recognizable by her strange large eyes and little girl fringe.

“Why did you even get involved?”, the boy spat.

Hinata didn’t seem to have an answer, merely shaking her head.

“Why couldn’t you just leave it alone? Why can’t you ever just leave _me_ alone?”

Ino knew the two were related somehow, maybe siblings. At least, they looked alike, and they always walked home together. That should have made the fight less scary, Ino thought, since siblings always argued. But- not that Ino knew herself, being an only child- this didn’t seem like a typical sibling fight. Neji was shaking with anger and Hinata, while not answering back, was silently crying.

The heart-rending look on the smaller girl’s face convinced Ino that she should do something. She took a step forward.

And froze immediately.

Neji was a bigger boy. That was scary.

She looked instinctively to Shikamaru and Chouji for help. Together, maybe, they could do something. But they looked on silently, faces blank with the same fear that shook her.

Her eyes met Naruto’s and reflected in them was the same outraged anger lying underneath her fear. He opened his mouth to speak.

There was a startled shout, and two older kids were approaching rapidly. Ino recognized them both. Rock Lee, the weird boy who lived at the home with Naruto and Sakura, and his kooky friend Tenten. She didn’t have much style because she dressed like a tomboy but looked like a little girl with her hair in matching buns, but she never really seemed to be aware of her complete lack of coordination, which made Ino feel at least a little respect for her.

They dashed past In and her friends, Lee’s long legs kicking out as he ran.

“Neji! Neji, stop!”

“Neji, what are you doing?”, Tenten asked breathlessly, skidding to a halt at Neji’s side.

Her friend rounded on her, his face red and eyes glassy. “Leave us alone! This doesn’t concern you!”

“Of course it does!” Lee snapped, grabbing at Neji’s arm. The other boy struggled to wrench himself free.

Neji stared between Lee and Tenten for a few seconds, fists balled, and then turned on his heels and marched away. The other two raced after him. In could hear their shouts fading into whispers as they moved further away.

Before Ino had time to react to anything that had just happened, Naruto had pushed past her and was leaning over Hinata.

Ino and the others drew closer.

“Hinata, are you alright?”

“Hey, are you okay?”

“What was that about?”

The small dark-haired girl appeared to not even register their words. She stared around at the group in silence, lip quivering. Something flickered behind her eyes and she began to walk away, small frame stumbling slightly as though Neji’s words had left her in physical pain.

“Hinata, wait!”

Sakura grabbed Naruto before he could dash after her.

“Leave her, she might not want us all chasing her right now.”

“But-”

“It’s nearly time for class.” Sakura’s eyes darted about and she wrapped her arms about herself, lowering her voice. “We can speak to her later when she feels like talking.”

Ino felt something in the pit of her stomach as she watched the girl walking away. Something in her strangely blank face inspired a deep dread, a grown-up fear she couldn’t name. She pushed it away, trying to ignore it as they made their way into the school buildings. From the uncomfortable look on her friends’ faces, she could tell they were doing much the same.

*

Kakashi was holding a bouquet. The smooth stems had been wet in his hands, but over the past couple of hours they had dried, at some point between the train ride and the walk to the cemetery.

Obito had bought Rin a bouquet just like this, once. The kind he knew she liked. Purple petals inlaid with black and yellow. When Rin had laughed and teased him about it, Obito had gotten flustered, although Kakashi could see she had been just as affected by the hint of high color in her round cheeks and the pleasant shine in her eyes. How he missed that.

Kakashi’s fingers clenched on the stems of the bouquet and he realized he was still crouched over the mossy ground by the graves. His trousers felt damp.

Rin's grave stared at him blankly. He set the flowers down, the purple sticking out among the rows of green and grey. The ground hadn’t quite settled flat again in front of the tombstone, a mound of earth still clearly rising above the surrounding area. She was down there, somewhere. _Was it her? Or would there only be bones, now?_

He checked his watch, guilt rising in his gut, and sucking any remaining color he had from his face. Would they think he was trying to get away from them? He swallowed. He’d already been there too long, was already late for work.

Flowery perfume danced around him briefly, as though Rin was scolding him for turning away from her. He let his eyes flit across to Obito’s own resting place, just a few feet away.

“I’m sorry.” Kakashi’s voice came out hoarse, words grating at his throat so as to cause pain. “I wasn’t sure what to get you.”

He closed his eyes, trying to imagine Obito’s reaction to that. If he would get mad, or perhaps just laugh at him. It had been hard to gauge Obito’s reactions, sometimes. He was always surprising Kakashi. Or maybe, he thought with a thrill of icy fear, what if they had been gone so long he was forgetting them as they truly had been, leaving him with nothing but fickle imitations that reacted as he would have wished them to?

Kakashi let out a shuddering breath, trying to draw up images of the real Obito.

They hadn’t been friends, at first. They had hated each other, really. Forced into tiny cramped rooms next to each other in their student apartment with a shared kitchen and bathroom and opposing personalities, they had been bound to come into conflict at some point.

He’d first learned more about Obit not from Obito himself but from Rin, and then Asuma and the others, as they came to visit. They would try to talk to Kakashi constantly. Kakashi still wasn’t really sure why. He hadn’t exactly encouraged the conversation. But he had learned a few things about his roommate that Obito hadn’t shared: He came from a large old family but only lived with his grandmother; he volunteered with the elderly; he and Rin had known each other since they were in middle school and he would buy her flowers for her birthday every year.

Kakashi had only really begun to bond with Obito after an argument- and he couldn’t recall now what it was about- where they almost physically fought, before Obito came to his room with a peace offering of snacks and they began to actually speak to each other, and listen, for the first time. Kakashi had opened up to Obito, something he had never really done before.

When Rin next visited, she had been quietly pleased by their shift in dynamics, finding Kakashi watching as Obito played video games. She had sought Kakashi out on campus shortly after and invited him to lunch.

The three of them soon became inseparable. He and Obito still niggled at each other and Rin would get frustrated with them, but they were like a family. Their trio had talked frequently about living together after graduation, on late nights when they went camping together and lay awake under the stars. Kakashi always imagined it: He would cook, of course, in the evenings, while Obito lazed about and they waited for Rin to come off of her shift at the hospital.

Kakashi opened his eyes. The two stones swam before him. For all of their imagining, they had never foreseen this.

The train journey back was a quiet one. Kakashi watched the sun sinking down, the long shadows of trees outside the windows flickering on and off across his skin as he raced past them.

He arrived to work half an hour late.

Tsunade was waiting at the door when he arrived. She stood with her shoulders back and arms folded- and Kakashi realized just now how strong her forearms were- and raised her eyebrows when he came in.

“Tsunade, I…”

She raised a hand to stop him. “Asuma already informed me that it’s the anniversary of the accident. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have put you on the rota for today.” She flicked the strand of hair hanging in front of his eyes with her forefinger. He really needed to get that cut again. “Just tell me when you need some time, okay? And don’t be late again.”

“I won’t. Thank you, Tsunade.”

In the kitchen, away from Tsunade’s searching eyes, Asuma was washing up, Iruka was drying a plate with a cloth, and Hayate was wiping down the surfaces. Izumo and Kotetsu loitered by the industrial-scale fridge, doing nothing much besides commentating.

Kotetsu glanced round and then locked eyes with the new arrival, chewing languidly on his gum. “You’re late, Kakashi.”

“Hm.” Kakashi busied himself with helping Hayate.

“Did Tsunade chew you out?”, asked Izumo.

He shrugged. “No, she was fine.”

“Huh”, said Kotetsu.

Kakashi sneaked a glance round to catch Izumo and Kotetsu exchanging bewildered looks.

“She’s actually pretty nice, you know”, Asuma spoke up. “When you actually do what she asks you to get done, that is.”

Izumo snorted. “We’re not cleaners. We’re handymen. And there’s nothing that needs handy-ing today.”

“Bullshit.”

They were quiet for a moment, aside from Kotetsu chewing on his gum and Hayate coughing a little.

When Hayate had his lungs under control, he said; “Tsunade is really laid back, though. For a manager.”

“I know I wouldn’t be working here if she wasn’t”, Iruka remarked.

Asuma quirked an eyebrow. “How come?”

He shrugged. “I don’t actually have any formal qualifications, for childcare. I just started here when I was eighteen as a kind of apprentice.”

“You didn’t have any formal qualifications?”, Kakashi asked. “I’m surprised you’re working at all.”

Iruka bristled a little, turning away slightly. “Yeah, well. I didn’t apply myself much in school. I was kind of the class clown.”

Kakashi carefully weighed his words before speaking again; clearly, what he had said before had been the wrong thing.

“Well… I suppose that’s why you and Naruto get along so well, huh?”

It worked. A faraway look that Kakashi recognized as fond flitted across Iruka’s features.

“Yeah. He’s a nightmare, isn’t he?”

Kakashi smiled to himself a little.

Hayato coughed once more.

“Might want to get that looked at, pal”, Asuma said, and received a glare in return. “What? Isn’t that a sign someone’s dying? A persistent cough?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just in the movies, Asuma”, Iruka laughed.

Izumo turned to Kakashi. “How come you were late, anyway? You looked like you’d been running through a field or something."

“A field?” Kotetsu wrinkled his nose.

“He has dirt on his pants, look.”

Kakashi shrugged, attempting to surreptitiously wipe at his pants.

He went out into the corridor, feeling the need to be alone. He headed in the direction of the staff room. Hopefully it would be empty.

After a moment, a shadow joined his, stretching out and shrinking and vanishing again under the lights that dotted the corridor.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come with you”, Asuma murmured. His voice was low and husky. “I wish I’d been able to, but I got stuck working all day today.”

“It’s fine”, Kakashi said. He fiddled with his mask briefly, pulling it further up as it had slipped down on his nose, and tucked his hands in his pockets, enjoying the warmth of the fabric.

“How come you didn’t go with Kurenai this morning?”

“I wanted to go alone.”

“Well… We’ll go with you next time, okay? Raidou too.” Asuma watched him with narrowed eyes.

“Sure.”

They paused by the staff room door, then Asuma pushed inside. Kakashi didn’t hear him say anything else because he turned around and walked the other way.

*

For some reason, all Tenten could think of was the cheesy pictures that couples took where one of them was walking ahead in some photogenic destination, the other one holding onto their hand and following.

Only she wasn’t holding Neji’s hand: He raced ahead of her, and she and Lee struggled to keep up his swift pace, not quite a run but faster than a walk. And this setting wasn’t very photogenic; weaving between kids from younger years, who threw curious glances in their direction while they moved towards the gym, the building furthest from anything else.

Tenten knew why Neji might be headed that way. Or, at least, she thought she did. She wasn’t sure what was going on in his mind at that moment. But she knew sometimes he liked to go the large field behind the gym when things got too much for him.

She knew that things weren’t good at home for Neji, had known that for a while now. Perhaps even as long ago as when they first started their project together and he had refused to let them into his house. Instead the three of them had always huddled up in Tenten’s cramped room, attempting to ignore the roars and stampeding feet of her younger siblings.

Tenten had never given much thought to how that home life could also be affecting Hinata. She forgot at times that they lived together. Maybe because they never seemed very affectionate; maybe because Neji never mentioned Hinata; maybe because she couldn’t imagine the two of them sitting comfortably together in a house where she had never set foot.

She exchanged a worried glance with Lee as they trampled through the slightly longer grass around the side of the school building. Was he thinking the same thing as her? It was tricky to know, a lot of the time, what it was exactly that Lee was thinking. Even when she thought they were on the same wavelength he would occasionally say something that made her reconsider their friendship.

Neji glanced back, face still scarlet and mouth bowed down in a frown, and scowled “Stop following me.”

This was one of those times she and Lee were thinking the same, clearly: They increased their pace as one, almost jogging until they were keeping pace just behind Ne.

Their friend eventually drew to a halt around the back of the building, where kids came to smoke sometimes. Tenten ignored the filthy looks they got from a few older kids hovering about, although she saw Lee looking at them skittishly and grabbed at his arm to keep him from bolting like a spooked horse.

Neji leaned back on one leg against the wall, arms crossed. He tilted his head up challengingly, eyes flickering up to meet hers.

Tenten hated him most like this. The cockiness and arrogance on his face, the defiance. It wasn’t a look she had seen on him for a long time.

She breathlessly brushed a strand of hair that had come unstuck from one of her buns out of her face and blurted out; “What’s going on with you, Neji? What was that about, huh?”

Lee folded his arms. “Why would you yell at Hinata like that?”

“It has nothing to do with you.” He didn’t look at either of them.

“Yes, it does! You can’t shut us out forever, Neji!”

Tenten tightened her grip on Lee’s arm. “I thought that last year we’d become friends, but ever since we’ve started back at school you’ve been acting like you hate us.”

“So what?” Neji snorted. “You thought we were friends because we did some dumb project together?”

“It wasn’t some dumb project!”

Lee’s words were so loud the kids smoking nearby jumped and turned to glare at him. Tenten made a conscious effort to keep her voice low when she spoke.

“Neji, we are your friends.”

“If you were, you’d leave me alone when I asked you to.”

“But-”

“Didn’t you listen to me?!”, Neji snapped. “I said leave me alone!”

“Neji…”

There was a moment of silence. Tenten saw that Neji was trembling, his hands tucked into fists. His short fingernails dug into the skin of his palm, forming small white crescent moons.

She exchanged another look with Lee. His wide eyes were even larger in his face than usual, and his teeth worried at his lip.

She didn’t catch when Neji’s face melted; when she looked back to him, the scowl was gone and he was blinking rapidly.

“I’m sorry. I just… It’s been tough for me, lately.” Neji sunk down onto his haunches against the wall.

Tenten watched his face for a moment: Thin and pale, framed by his long dark hair. His unusual light eyes, the same as Hinata’s, half-closed and heavily lidded.

Eventually, she said; “Lee, can you go on ahead to class? We’ll catch up with you.”

“What? No, I must be here for Neji as well. If my friend needs me I will never-”

She gave him a pleading look. For the space of a minute he looked frantically between Tenten and Neji several times, so fast that she thought he’d give himself whiplash. Then he finally crumbled and gave an odd little half-bow.

Tenten waited until he was gone before leaning against the wall and sliding down to sit next to Neji, feeling the cold of the metal against her back.

Hesitantly, she rested an arm around his shoulders. It was a risky move, but he ultimately did put his head in his folded arms and take a shuddering breath.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

She rubbed his arm. The fabric of his blazer felt cool to her touch. “Hey, we have to go in a minute or we’ll be really late, but maybe at lunch we can hang out on the field and have a nap if you want.” She knew Neji enjoyed that. Last year she and Lee would do cartwheels in the sun together while Neji lazed about, occasionally watching them with his head turned to one side and one eye open.

Neji was quiet for a moment longer before nodding.

“Okay.”

Tenten smiled and pulled herself up, dusting off her skirt before reaching down a hand to Neji. He stared at her for a moment before taking it and allowing himself to be dragged upwards.

*

Naruto crunched on another stick of carrot as his eyes darted around the cafeteria.

Sakura sat across from him, concentrating on cutting the sandwich she had stolen from Shikamaru into smaller pieces. Shikamaru himself, as ever, had his head down on the table beside her. Kiba sat next to Naruto, tearing through his lunch at Mach speed. Ino and Chouji had decided to go back for seconds, and Naruto could just make out the top of Chouji’s head in the queue to buy lunch.

He couldn’t see Hinata anywhere, although they’d gotten out for lunch on time and he had been keeping an eye out for her ever since he sat down. He and Sakura had tried to speak to her in class but she had simply smiled, a blank empty smile, and told them she was okay, that she and Neji had just been arguing as family does, and she guessed that they had both overreacted. And perhaps that was true. Naruto had seen Neji sitting out on the field with Tenten on the way to lunch, seemingly calmer now. But the way Hinara had gripped the edge of her desk as she told him she was okay… And now she wasn’t at lunch…

Naruto reached for another baton of carrot from Shikamaru’s abandoned lunch.

“Hey, Kiba?”

Kiba paused in his eating, a piece of fruit half-hanging from his mouth.

“Hmm?”

“How was Hinata in history?”

Kiba swallowed the fruit in two crunches. “She seemed alright. Quiet, but she usually is. Why?”

He didn’t get the chance to answer. There was a ripple of startled shouts and several groups of students nearby turned towards the commotion.

Naruto sighed and set down the next bit of carrot.

“Again? I just want to eat my lunch and someone is causing trouble, again!”

“You don’t have to get involved”, said Sakura. “You could just ignore it. And you weren’t even eating _your_ lunch.”

“No! I’m going over there to see what’s going on!”

He rose to his feet. It might be Neji again, and if it was… Well, the memory of Hinata, who had been so nice to him, wiping tears from her eyes, the white of her knuckles as she gripped her pencil and the straight line of her back as she sat ramrod straight in class… It had better not be Neji.

But it wasn’t Neji. It was the exchange students, the three of them standing close together in the center of a cluster of people. More specifically, the attention seemed to be directed specifically at the red-haired boy.

Someone Naruto didn’t recognize was yelling at him. The boy was standing with his arms crossed, staring straight ahead. To his left was the spiky-haired girl, her arms also crossed, and on his other side was the weird boy that dressed in black. Both of them were frowning, although the red-haired boy’s face was startlingly blank.

“What is wrong with him?”, Naruto muttered. He stepped out from in front of his chair and went to watch, Kiba following him.

It was mere seconds before the exchange student had pushed the other kid over and then walked away, ignoring the shouts and jeers from everybody watching, placing himself in a seat in the corner of the cafeteria.

Seeing that an actual fight wasn’t going to happen, the crowds dispersed.

Naruto clenched his fist. Only he and his friends and the exchange student remained standing, the boy who had been pushed hurriedly rushing away with his friends.

He froze when the boy locked eyes with him. His irises were so pale that they looked like ice, simply reflecting the colors around him.

Naruto only looked away when Kiba snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, he’s a freak. His name is Gaara.” He pointed one finger at the other exchange students. “That’s his brother and sister.”

“They’re siblings? They don’t look related at all.” Naruto squinted at them and then at Kiba.

“You can kind of see it in the eyes, though”, said Shikamaru.

Naruto looked at his best friend. He had an odd expression on his face; eyes slightly wider than usual and a determined set to his mouth. It was the most animated he had seemed all day.

Before anyone could stop him, Kiba marched over to the exchange students. Naruto and Shikamaru exchanged a glance as they followed him.

Kiba looked up at the tall boy dressed all in black. “Were you guys all born one year apart? I heard you were.”

The boy returned his eager stare coldly for a long moment, so long that Naruto thought maybe he hadn’t understood, before speaking. His accent was thick even on the one short word. “Yes.”

Kiba snorted, his canine teeth barely visible. “Your parents must have been busy. Your poor mom.”

“Our mother is dead.”

Kiba’s face flashed with shock, and he fell silent, stepping back beside Shikamaru.

Shikamaru began to speak to them, but Naruto couldn’t understand. The words came low and fast, in another language. Surprisingly, they responded in the same language.

“I think he’s speaking French”, Sakura whispered to Naruto,

He leaned forward, straining to hear. He couldn’t speak French, but he thought it might be similar to English, and he knew a few words of that from movies. Maybe he could pick something up.

Only he couldn’t hear, because Lee had appeared and begun talking in his ear.

“Tenten is talking to Neji alone, outside. I don’t think they want me there. I feel bad, I think he’s mad at me.”

“Lee, I’m trying to listen.”

“Sorry. Listen to what?”

"The French,"

His words caught up to Naruto’s brain. Neji, angry. Being consoled. Mad at Lee. He again thought of the elder boy yelling at Hinata, and his earlier anger returned.

Looking past the weird boy and girl that Shikamaru was speaking with, he once more locked eyes with ‘Gaara’.

Naruto said; “I’m going to talk to him.”

“Don’t make things worse”, Sakura hissed.

“I’m just going to tell him that he can’t come into our school and bully whoever he feels like. Or I’ll stop him.”

“I’ll go with you, Naruto!”, Lee announced. “I’ve been practicing self-defense in the evenings with Gai. If anything goes wrong, I will protect you.”

“Thanks, Lee, but we should be fine. He’s not that tough.”

“Idiot.” Sakura shook her head. “Kiba, stay here”, she added as she followed Naruto and Lee over.

Gaara looked up at them unflinchingly until they towered in front of him. Naruto swallowed and spoke.

“What is wrong with you, huh? Who do you think you are, coming in here and being rude and mean to everybody in our school? What, do you think you’re better than us?”

The boy narrowed his eyes. When he responded, his accent was as thick as his brother’s had been.

“What?”

Naruto put his hands on his hips. “Why are you so horrible? You keep bullying people, and it’s not fair.”

Standing, Gaara’s face only rose to about the height of Naruto's shoulder. He shouldn’t have felt as afraid as he did.

“You do not know me”, Gaara said.

Something touched Naruto’s arm and he jumped. Shikamaru appeared at his side. The other exchange students had also come over, and they flanked their brother.

Gaara’s sister whispered his name, and then their brother snapped; “Hey, kid, leave him alone!”

Gaara yelled something in another language. His voice was louder now, harsh. People were beginning to look in their direction.

“Naruto, just leave him”, Shikamaru cautioned in a low voice.

“No! What the hell, how can you even be so rude to your own siblings? You’re lucky to have a family and you’re treating them like dirt!”

“Naruto, drop it.”

“Not until he answers me!”, Naruto snapped

“I’m mean because I hate you”, said Gaara.

He tilted his head. “Well you don’t know me either, so how can you hate me?”

“I hate everybody.”

Well, that was an answer. Naruto blinked at the other boy for a moment, dumbfounded. “Huh?”

“Naruto”, Sakura reprimanded before turning to the other boy. “Let’s talk about this.”

“Stay out of this”, Gaara said, his voice still level, and then he said something which even Naruto, admittedly not gifted when it came to languages, could tell was an insult.

“Gaara!”, the female exchange student burst out again.

Sakura, her voice low, asked; “What did that mean?” Naruto glanced over at her and his blood turned to ice. Her face was contorted in anger, and her whole body was trembling. What if she lost her temper and got in trouble again? “What did he say? What did he call me?!”

She stepped towards the exchange student.

“Hey!”, the boy with the dark clothes yelped, “Get away from him!”

“Sakura!”

“I want to know what he called me!”

The older boy pushed Sakura and she pushed him back. Naruto watched in dismay as Shikamaru and the spiky-haired girl attempted to get in the way, and a shoving match began, Kiba also embroiled in the throes.

“Let go of me!”, Sakura screamed, thrashing about.

More people were beginning to look in their direction and crowds were beginning to gather.

Before his pathway to his friends was blocked, Naruto threw himself into the fray, seeking to grab a hold of Sakura.

He managed to find her hand and caught it, but that only served to make her look even angrier than ever. Still, Naruto tried to keep a tight grasp on her fist to keep her from lashing out at anybody. He locked eyes with Shikamaru, also trying to separate Sakura from the exchange students.

A flash of red drew his eyes over Shikamaru’s shoulder. Gaara.

Only now the boy didn’t look furious, as he had before, a dark storm brewing on his face. Instead his hands were on either side of his head, shaking it as he backed away from the fight, only to be cordoned in by the ensuing crowds. His eyes were screwed tightly shut. If Naruto didn’t know any better, he would have thought that he seemed… Distressed.

Naruto found his voice.

“Guys, wait.”

Nobody reacted.

He cleared his throat to try again, louder. “Guys-”

A loud roar interrupted him.

Lee came rushing from nowhere, a blur of black and green as he dived at Gaara, hands stretched out in front of him and one leg raised in a fake martial arts-style pose.

Gaara fell back, eyes flying wide open, arms raised in front of himself.

“Leave me alone!” It came out in a strangled, high-pitched tone.

Naruto didn’t see Gaara push Lee. He must have blinked. Only, one minute, Lee was still barrelling through the air at full force towards the small boy, and the next he was slipping backward, seeming to fall in slow motion. He threw his arms out to catch himself.

_That’s a good idea_ , Naruto thought. _There’s a chair right there, he can grab a hold of that._

Lee’s hand shot past its target, flying past the back of the chair. His butt hit the floor with a _thunk_. Naruto would have laughed.

He would have laughed, except Lee’s arm hit the back of the chair with an even louder _crack_ and bent in a way that arms shouldn’t be able to bend.

Naruto locked eyes with Lee, and the two large black pupils rolled back into his head.

Someone began to scream.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Bees?"

Had sunlight always been so bright?

Lee’s eyes strained as he struggled to blink them open. Blue skies, the clouds so white they seemed luminescent, swum in front of him. It was certainly a welcome change from earlier that day, the dreary clouds.

But had the cries of the birds also been so loud before? Their wails crested and fell, scratching at his eardrums.

There were voices, too, except they were hidden under the chatter of the birds, a low tone that dropped in and out of existence.

The clouds continued to swim until they were blocked out, and he was grateful for the shadows that fell over him, eradicating that brilliant light that threatened to blind him. Various oval faces- the apparent sources of the shadows- shifted in and out of view, some familiar, others less so.

The birds were getting louder. They were screaming now.

Lee tried raising his head slightly, and everything shifted into focus.

Those were not clouds overhead, but lights; the blue sky was actually a slightly greyed ceiling. And Sakura’s face was pale and scared where it loomed over him.

“Sakura”, he whispered, his voice coming out ready and high. “What is going on?”

“Lee, it’s okay, the ambulance is here. Just stay still.”

“Ambulance?”

He tried to sit up. He felt one of his hands pressing against the cold, rough floor with little strength. His whole body turned to ice when he found that he felt nothing with his other hand.

“Try not to move”, another voice instructed as Sakura leaned back over him.

The pain returned to him in waves: First, an awareness of a dull ache spreading throughout his upper body as if he had hit his elbow against something, and the shock was tingling through his nerves. Then, shooting pain to his left.

When Sakura offered her hand to him, he took it gratefully in his right and squeezed it, perhaps a little too hard. She hissed and he would have let go of her had the pain not been so immense.

The next thing he knew, Sakura was being shepherded away.

No, stop, he wanted to tell them, only the words were lost behind the thick blanket which had engulfed him. He felt as if he were swimming in pudding, the air around him thick so that he could only move nightmare-slow.

Before he understood what was happening, a group of people was lifting him onto a stretcher, trying to keep his arm in place, but the pain was so overwhelming he barely noticed when they left the building and entered the refreshing air outside.

It was only as they lifted him into the ambulance that he recalled what had happened. His friends had been in trouble, and he had gone to help them. And then the boy, his name was, it was Gaara…

Where had that boy gone? Were his friends okay, the ones Gaara had tried to hurt? Lee’s mind raced and he tried to lift his head, even as the paramedic soothingly stroked his forehead and instructed him to lay down.

There was a small crowd gathered around the back of the ambulance where they were loading him. Sakura stood, biting on her nails, Naruto beside her. He didn’t recognize many of the other faces.

Oddly, he found himself worrying about Neji and Tenten: Were they alright, after the events of that morning? Had anyone told them where he was going? If he didn’t show up to their next class without an explanation, they would worry about him.

He attempted to voice his worries, only to be stopped by a soft hand on his head.

“It’s okay, your friends will know where you are. Just focus on taking big breaths, in and out.”

Lee closed his eyes tight and focused on the deep breaths, except those jostled his arm every time his chest rose and sent a fresh wave of pain rolling across him, and he found his breathing coming shallower and harsher.

“Deep breaths, Lee”, the same soothing voice from before reminded him.

The ride to the hospital lasted an eternity. By the time he arrived, his body had been so thoroughly wracked by pain that every limb felt exhausted, and he was glad of the stretcher when they carried him in through the doors.

He had never been to the hospital before. It was scary: Everything smelt weird and was a clinical white. Strange faces loomed at him from all directions. He thought he cried a little, but he couldn’t remember when he began crying, or when he stopped.

Without letting him move, they took him straight through to a room where they put him in a giant tube. He felt that that should panic him, except now he felt incredibly sluggish as if he had run a marathon. The nurse, as she leaned over him to adjust his position slightly, told him he hit his head hard when he went down, so they just need to make sure that he was okay, and afterward she propped him up slightly to give him a glass of water.

After asking a few questions which reminded Lee of being in primary school, they took an x-ray of his arm.

“It’s broken here”, the doctor informed him, pointing at the pale silvery outlines of his bones- how creepy- on the black film. Lee was seated opposite him in a small side room just off of a main corridor. “It’s a very clean break, so it should heal nicely if all goes well. You will need a cast.”

Lee nodded, not really taking it in. The painkillers they had given him must have begun to work, because now all the pain was totally gone, replaced with a feeling akin to numbness. He floated, empty and light, his left arm entirely missing.

“What color would you like?”, the nice nurse asked him. “You can pick.”

Lee thought for a moment. What color would look cool? Of course. There was only one real answer to that question. “Green!”

He smiled as they layered material his arm, although after some time he began to feel his arm again: It felt heavy claustrophobic, and sore. Still, the green looked good. Gai would be happy when he saw it.

Almost as though Lee had mentally summoned him, the door flew open and Gai walked in.

“This is one of Lee’s carers”, another nurse said from outside, but Lee barely heard her over Gai.

“Lee! My boy!”

“Gai!” Seeing his face, all of Lee’s emotions decided to resurface in a single rush of sentimental vomit, and he burst into tears, moving to hug Gai. The man hesitantly hugged him back, but Lee pulled away as the gesture jostled his arm slightly.

“Doctor!”, Gai burst out. “What happened? Please, tell me he’ll live!” He spoke loudly, in a melodramatic tone, and Lee found himself giggling a bit.

The doctor folded his hands one over another, completely unfazed. “Lee has broken his arm. It is a clean break, so it should heal. He also has a mild concussion.”

A concussion? Lee had heard of that, had heard tales of the martial artists that he liked to watch videos of getting concussions. He knew it was to do with an injury to the head, only he wasn’t one hundred percent sure on what it actually meant when someone had one. Did they get a headache? Go blind? Whatever it was, it was bad. He began to tremble with fear.

The doctor continued; “He has also had a mild panic attack. But he seems much better now.”

“Oh, Lee!” Gai hugged him again. “I promise I will do all I can to get you well again! Thank you, doctor.”

Once more, the doors opened, this time to reveal Tsunade and Shizune.

Tsunade took Lee’s condition in, her eyes raking over him and then about the room. She marched over to crouch beside him, brushing his hair back to feel his forehead.

Lee held his breath. There was a fire in Tsunade’s eyes that only appeared when she was at her most severe. Was she angry at him?

“Lee”, she said, “we will get to the bottom of this. How did you get hurt? Did someone push you?”

Lee thought of Gaara. Small and skinny, the whorl of his hair all Lee could see as he stood folded in on himself before there was a flash of green eyes. He had never seen him before.

He felt tears come to his eyes at the thought that this stranger would want to hurt his friends, and that he had hurt Lee for no real reason. That wasn’t something that was supposed to happen.

Lee shook his head. “I don’t remember what happened.”

Tsunade knelt in front of him, placing her hands on his shoulders. He felt her nails scraping against his skin through the hospital gown they had given him.

Her eyes grew even more intense as she asked; “Are you sure?”

He met her gaze, and she didn’t look away. For a moment he had the absurd fear that, as she stared into his face, she would be able to read his mind and tell what he was really thinking.

Maybe he should just tell her about Gaara.

He opened his mouth slightly.

A solid arm dusted gingerly over his shoulders, and Gai was stood over him, laughing his usual full-bodied laugh.

“Tsunade, with all due respect, the boy has a concussion.” Gai continued to laugh as he spoke. “We should probably get him home before we question him.”

“You’re right.” Tsunade sighed, and turned towards the nice doctor Lee had been speaking with previously. “Will he be alright to walk? Just to the car?”

The man smiled softly. “He should be fine, as long as you’re careful of his arm. And any changes, if he feels dizzy or sick or any worse, obviously give us a call or bring him back in.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

Outside, Lee had a similar feeling to the one earlier, the time which felt like days ago when he had been lying on the floor of the cafeteria. He was light and buoyant, as though he could fly away and get lost in the hazy light. The only difference from before was that there really were fluffy white clouds hanging in blue skies overhead and that Lee was aware enough to know his feelings were likely caused by the painkillers pumping around his body.

Attempting to walk in a straight line towards the car, he focused on Tsunade’s and Shizune’s backs where he followed them, concentrating hard on keeping his arm still in its sling, and leaned into Gai’s side for reassurance and comfort, relishing in the soft yet heavy press of a hand on his head.

*

Shino’s house wasn’t what Kiba had expected.

Really, he wasn’t sure what it was he had expected, but he didn’t think it would be so… Normal.

Rather than dark, dripping corridors, the rooms were light and open. The only insect-like beings apparent there were Shino’s parents, who flitted about the house.

His mother was like a butterfly, seeming to almost dance around. His father, on the other hand, looked a lot like Shino and wore glasses as well, and seemed to just appear at random behind them.

Kiba was glad when they were finally alone in Shino’s room, away from the eyes of the adults. They seemed perfectly nice, yet the feeling of being watched by an adult reminded him too much of being at school.

The three of them settled into a loose triangle on the floor, Hinata and Shino sitting cross-legged, and Kiba stretched out so one foot was almost digging into Shino’s side, leaning back on his hands. He had expected Shino to get annoyed at him, but the other boy had made no comments so far.

When the silence became almost overbearing, to the point that Kiba thought he might make a joke just to break the silence, Shino asked; “Has anyone made a start on the project yet?”

Well, that wouldn’t be Kiba’s first choice of conversation, but it would do. He sighed. “Okay, so, my parents haven’t given me much information. I’m going to try calling my big sister, maybe tomorrow, to see if she knows anything.”

Hinata blinked up at him, her knees still tucked under her chin. “Does she not live with you?”

“Nope.” Kiba let the ‘p’ in nope pop as it left his mouth. “She moved out when my stepfather moved in. She lives close, though, and I stay with her sometimes. Mom always says she’s the smart one of the family.”

“So I take it you’re not?”, asked Shino.

“Hey, I’m smart!” Kiba nudged him. “So, what have you got, then? Any family secrets?”

“I have managed to garner a lot of information from my parents.”

“Like what?”

“My great-grandfather died at war, and my grandmother ran away from home at a young age and made a life for herself in this town. My mother works for the local government here so she has access to a lot of records and archives and things. On my father’s side, I am descended from a long line of beekeepers.”

Kiba’s eyebrows shot halfway up his forehead. Shino might have been the strange bug boy, but he hadn’t suspected that it was an inherited trait.

“Bees?”

“Yes.” Shino adjusted his glasses slightly. “Bees. There are some in the garden if you would like to see.”

“I’ll pass.”

“My father’s bees produce good honey. You should try it sometime.”

Shino had an odd look on his face. It was almost… Proud. Kiba shook his head. Shino was close to his parents. Weird.

“Okay… Well, Hinata”, Kiba said, and at her name the girl jumped, as though startled that somebody remembered she was in the same room with them, “how about you?”

Her mouth formed a small, delicate ‘o’, as round as her eyes. “Me?”

“Have you got any information to add?”, Kiba asked, trying not to sound exasperated. Granted, it was irritating having to repeat himself so much, and with anyone else he might be annoyed, but Hinata clearly wasn’t intentionally ignoring him or making him repeat himself.

“Not really…”

“I know some stuff about your family”, said Shino.

Hinata jumped half out of her skin. “You do?”

“How do you know?”, Kiba scoffed.

The other boy turned to him and stared for a moment with his opaque lenses before answering; “My family has been in this town for a long time, and so have hers. Also, her dad works for local government, too. My mom knows him.”

“Oh”, Hinata breathed. “I didn’t know that.”

“I’m not surprised that he wouldn’t mention it”, said Shino. “My mom says he’s not exactly one for making friends.”

“No.” She looked down. “He’s very private.”

“I’ve heard your family are very traditional? As in, more so than even other traditional local families.”

“I suppose so.”

Well, Kiba guessed that explained why she was so quiet and polite, and why seemed sort of uncomfortable about answering Shino’s questions. Shino must have noticed her discomfort, too, because he fell silent.

The three of them sat without really looking at each other. Hinata and Shino had their knees drawn up to their respective chests, and they looked so alike but so different that it was amusing. Kiba leaned back on his hands and picked at the carpet before remembering that this wasn’t his house. He pretended to be fidgeting and wiped his hands on his pants to dispel any suspicion.

A thought occurred to him.

“That guy”, he said.

“Hm?”

Kiba turned to Hinata. “The one in the year above us, that you walk home with. Is he your brother?”

She drew her knees up closer. “No, he’s my cousin.”

“Do you live with your aunts and uncles and stuff, too?”

“No… It’s me and my dad and sister, and my cousin. That’s all.”

“How come your cousin lives with you?”

“Kiba”, said Shino.

“Huh?”, Kiba asked, and then he realized. Hinata was looking kind of uncomfortable again. “Oh, sorry.”

Rather than shrinking away again, Hinata shook her head and looked up at him. “No, it’s alright… My cousin’s mother came from abroad, and she died giving birth after marrying my uncle. My uncle died sometime later. My father saw it as his duty to take his only remaining family in.”

“What about your mother’s family?”

“She died as well”, Hinata answered simply, and Kiba found himself looking away from her pale face.

After a heavy pause, Shino said; “Your cousin. Neji.”

“Yes?”

“He’s friends with Lee, isn’t he?”

Hinata nodded. “I think so.”

“Have you heard anything about how he’s doing?”, asked Shino.

“Ah- no, I haven’t.” She frowned. “I hope he’s alright.

Kiba balled his fists. “Yeah, me too. Who does that red-haired freak think he is, coming in and hurting him like that? I hope they send him back home, wherever he’s from.”

“Algeria”, Shini provided.

“Wherever. Screw them.”

“I’m sure Lee is fine.”

“I heard he broke his arm.”

Hinata winced. Shino didn’t seem to have a response to that.

Wanting to lighten the mood, Kiba asked; “Hey, hey, how many bones are there in a human hand?”

They both looked at him.

“Well”, said Shino, “if there are 206 bones in the body, I would guess around 20 to 25. In each hand.”

“No. Stop taking everything so seriously, idiot. It’s… It’s a handful.”

He cringed when the joke fell flat, Shino merely staring back at him.

Then a high-pitched giggle caught Kiba’s attention. He turned to find Hinata, still curled in on herself, with her hands over her mouth. It was the first time today that she had actually looked happy to him, eyes clear and with color in her cheeks.

“Kids!” A voice called, breaking up the light mood. “Dinner is ready!”

“Your mom cooked for us?”, Kiba whispered to Shino, and he nodded.

“Coming!”

Shino got to his feet and made his way outside.

Kiba slowly clambered upright to follow him. He’d eaten at friends’ houses before, but not without hinting that he was hungry.

Once he reached the doorway, he paused, noticing that Hinata was still sitting with her balled fists clenched on her knees.

“Hina? You coming?”

She looked up at him, blinking. “Yes. Of course.”

With that she scrambled to her feet and raced past him out of the room. Kiba shook his head as he followed her. Weirdos, the pair of them.

Dinner was a quiet yet comfortable affair. Shino’s parents laid out a full spread for them, and Kiba couldn’t believe how much food there was.

“We’re so happy to have Shino's friends with us here today”, Shino’s mom had announced when they sat down, beaming at her son, and for once Shino looked embarrassed, ducking his head.

Kiba thought he would make a serious dent in the food, but it was Hinata who surprised everyone by tucking in and devouring plate after plate. He looked over at Shino and, although he couldn’t see Shino’s eyes, he didn’t think he was imagining the look of astonishment there, reflecting his own. Shino’s lips tweaked up in a tiny smile and Kiba found himself grinning back. The guy was pretty serious- even when it came to food, meticulously dividing the food that he loaded onto his plate- but Kiba liked him, for some reason.

Once dinner was finished and all the plates cleared away, they sat in the living room together until the sun began to set.

“Do you kids have a time you need to be home for?”, Shino’s dad inquired.

Kiba shrugged.

Shino’s dad gave him a concerned look, so he smiled and said; “Yeah, I’d best be going.”

He thought of Akamaru waiting for him, and the decision to leave suddenly became more urgent. Would Akamaru have been fed, without him being there? Was mom home today?

Shino’s dad nodded, and asked; “Do you need a ride home?”

Kiba shook his head. “It’s fine, I’ll walk. Hinata, I’ll walk you home first, too.”

He knew roughly where she lived, and it was a little out of his way, but a five-minute detour wouldn’t hurt, not when he had been out all day already.

Hina nodded.

The two of them pulled their jackets and shoes on, thanked their hosts for the food and hospitality, and walked down the driveway.

Kiba looked back. Shino was standing on the doorstep waving, but both of his parents were there with him as if they wanted to say goodbye as well. Strange.

Once they reached the end of the road, Hinata stopped.

“Thank you, Kiba, but I have to go the other way.”

She bowed to him before taking off in a half-sprint, heading in the other direction.

Kiba stared after her in confusion. Sure, you could get to both his and her house that way, but it was a longer route. Maybe she wanted the fresh air.

He shrugged to himself and headed towards home.

Yes, he thought, his project mates were definitely bizarre. But, somehow, he liked them.

*

Kurenai was sitting at the reception desk.

It wasn’t that odd, not really; most of the workers at the home had done their fair share of reception duty. Yet Asuma still felt a jolt of surprise whenever he saw somebody other than Shizune seated there.

Not that it was an unwelcome surprise: Seeing Kurenai in any situation was one of those small things that continuously brightened his day.

When he walked around the corner, she glanced up from the book she was flicking though and threw him a curios smile, tilting her head so that her dark hair cascaded over one shoulder.

“Hey.”

“Hey”, he replied, moving closer. “How come you’re on reception now?” He was sure he had seen Shizune just an hour or so ago.

“Shizune had to go. There was some kind of medical emergency.”

“Medical emergency? Who?”

“One of the high school kids got into a fight and was taken to the hospital.”

Asuma groaned and mentally flipped through a roster of the potential victims.

After a few seconds of thought, he settled on; “Probably Naruto.”

“Hmm.” Kurenai flipped a strand of hair from her eyes to peer up at him. “I wouldn’t put it past Sakura.”

“Or Lee.” He frowned. “Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious. Whoever it is.”

“Hopefully not”, she echoed.

Lost in his thoughts, Asuma perched on the wooden desk, and then jolted as he felt a hand strike into his back, between his shoulder blades.

“Get off”, Kurenai laughed, “you’re in my way.”

He snorted and leaned back. “In your way of what?”

She pushed him again. “I’m trying to do my job here.”

“What job is that?” Asuma peered over his shoulder to raise an eyebrow at her.

“Greeting people.”

Kurenai was struggling to keep a straight face. Asuma grinned openly as he first looked around at the empty reception and then asked; “What people?”

Snorting, Kurenai once more attempted to shove him off of the desk. He gripped on tightly with both hands, refusing to budge, and leaned back even further, prompting a screech of ptotest.

With the sound of footsteps approaching and the front doors opening, Asuma straightened up, then relaxed when he spied Gai and Shizune, walking together.

“See?” Kurenai nudged him. “These people?”

“What?”, Shizune asked, peering at them, and Asuma simply shook his head.

Tsunade and Lee appeared behind them, Lee’s arm encased in plaster, and both Asuma and Kurenai immediately leaped to their feet. So not Naruto, after all.

“Lee, are you okay?”, asked Asuma.

“What happened?”

“Lee had a bit of an accident”, said Tsunade.

“But he’s going to be fine!”, Gai announced. “Good as new in no time!”

He slung an arm around Lee and gave a thumbs-up, and Lee copied him with his good arm.

An incoming stampede of footsteps announced that the other residents of the home had arrived. Asuma watched as Sakura and Naruto raced over, followed by a few of the smaller children, and then Sasuke, hanging in the back with his hands in his pockets. He was a strange boy.

“Lee!”, Naruto yelled.

“We were so worried!”, Sakura cried.

“I thought you’d died, for sure!”

“Look at my cast!”

“Ooh! Green!”

“Can we write on it?”

“I’ll go get a pen”, Gai chuckled.

Before he could move, Kurenai rushed back into Tsunade’s office. She returned with a marker in one hand, and Sakura ran over to grab it.

The kids descended on Lee in a small gang, gathering around him so that Asuma could only see the top of his head. Small giggles sounded as the pen was passed among them and serious discussions were held over what to write on the cast.

Detaching himself from the squabble, Gai made his way over to stand to one side with Asuma and Kurenai, laughing for more softly than Asuma had ever heard him as he did so.

Once he reached the desk, he turned back and put his hands on his hips. “He’s perked up a lot since the hospital.”

Asuma glanced at him. The thing he most admired about Gai was how much he genuinely cared about the kids in their care, especially Lee. Gai had taken it upon himself to instill the young boy with confidence, spending hours completing various workout plans with him on the field outside the house.

“What’s going on?”, a voice asked, and Asuma jumped.

Raidou and Genma were stood to the side of the reception, having just come around the corner. Genma was, as he was wont to do, chewing on a toothpick, although his customary bandana was missing, his light brown hair falling loose about his face.

“Lee fell over at school and broke his arm.” Gai narrowed his eyes. “Although I suspect there may have been more to it than that.”

The other adults locked gazes and tried to fight back laughter. Asuma hadn’t known Gai for very long and while he did like him, he had to admit that he was also a bit odd at times. Asuma found him kind of irritating, at the beginning, back when he thought Gai was just putting on his crazy nice guy act. Now he knew that was just how Gai was. It had simply taken a few months to warm up to him, that was all.

Genma, on the other hand, had quickly become a good friend. He, Asuma, Kurenai, and Raidou had met up several times for drinks outside of work, and Gai had joined them on the last two occasions. They hadn’t managed to get Kakashi to join yet, but Kurenai seemed determined that he would come along soon.

“Are we all that’s in today?”, Kurenai asked. She was leaning forward on the reception desk, peering up at the guys.

“Ibiki is here too. Somewhere”, said Raidou.

Asuma raised an eyebrow. “Really? I never see him here.” Outside of staff meetings, trying to find Ibiki was like trying to find a unicorn.

“None of us do.” Genma shrugged. “It feels like he’s always here, though.”

“He’s probably in the courtyard”, sighed Kurenai. “I’ve seen him lurking out there, just smoking and looking tough.”

“Oh, yes I’ve seen hi there, too”, Raidou said. “What does he actually do here?”

“Not a clue.” Genma hummed, then turned to the side with a sly smile. “Maybe Asuma can use his connections to look into it, huh?”

“Hm…” Asuma brushed him off, not really wanting to go into it. The one thing he had found he didn’t like about Genma was his subtle inquiries. He never pried too hard, but it was like he was always trying to set up opportunities for Asuma to talk about his family.

His family. Which was, of course, not only limited to his father.

“Sorry, I’ve just remembered there’s something I need to do”, he told the others, ducking under the combined weight of their gazes.

As he walked away, he caught Raidou’s voice muttering; “Now look, you’ve upset him.”

“What did I do?”, Genma replied, and there was a pause before he yelped; “Ow, Kurenai!”

Leaving the chattering group behind him, Asuma made his way along the corridor and around the corner to where the younger kids’ rooms were. The place was mostly deserted; most of them had congregated in the reception, it seemed. But he could still hear familiar voices ringing out from the direction he was heading towards.

Konohamaru’s door was already open when he approached.

Asuma’s nephew sat cross-legged on the floor, opposite Moegi and Udon, who listened intently as Konohamaru talked about, apparently, a new game he had made up.

Asuma coughed. “Konohamaru? Can I talk to you for a bit?”

Konohamaru’s head swiveled in his direction. “Uncle Asuma! Sure!”

He leaped to his feet and ran down the corridor to keep up with Asuma, who led him to the small staffroom just along the corridor.

Asuma peered in the small window. Aside from the girl on the small poster, there was nobody inside. He opened the door and Konohamaru trailed after him inside.

The young boy hovered by the door, shuffling impatiently from one foot to another as Asuma rested against the small table.

“How have you been lately?”, Asuma asked semi-awkwardly.

“Okay.” Konohamaru shrugged.

“You haven’t been in any more trouble since you sprayed Kakashi with ink?” The memory had him fighting against the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“That was Naruto”, Konohamaru replied defensively. He huffed and looked down at his feet.

Asuma raised his eyebrows. “Is that a no?”

“Yes.”

Laughing a little at the contradiction, Asuma shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. “Okay. And how is everything back at school?”

“Good! My new teacher is really nice!” Konohamaru stepped forward and tugged at the bottom of Asuma’s shirt. “Can you come to my parent’s evening again this year?”

“Yes, if you want me to.”

“Yes!” The boy paused and looked down again, scuffing his feet against the carpet. “Was there anything else you want to talk about?”

Kids. Always cheeky.

Asuma ruffled his hair with one hand. “No, I just wanted to talk to you and make sure you were alright. I haven’t seen you much lately. You can go back to your friends if you want to.”

“Yeah…” Konohamaru didn’t move.

“Konohamaru?”

For a long moment all Asuma was privy to was the sight of messy brown hair, and then a pair of dark eyes appeared.

“Grandpa is going to take me to dinner this weekend, do you want to come with us?”

Oh.

“I can’t this weekend”, said Asuma, wondering whether he had hesitated for too long before responding. “But I promise I’ll take you out sometime.”

“With grandpa?”, Konohamaru clarified, eyes wide.

“Some time.”

The boy’s face crumpled.

“You’re lying.”  
  


“Konohamaru…”

“I thought…” Konohamaru’s face screwed up as he seemingly struggled to get the words out. “When you said you were going to work here… I thought you would let me come live with you because you were out of college and had a job.”

Asuma saw his nephew was dangerously close to tears and so dropped to his knees, wrapping him in a hug. He felt Konohamaru’s body, still so small, shaking.

“If I had the money and I thought it was what was best for you”, he whispered into Konohamaru’s ear, “nothing would stop me from taking you home. But it’s best for you to stay here, Konohamaru. There are plenty of people to look after you here.”

He had promised himself, when he first found out about the accident, that he would take care of Konohamaru. Except, how could he? He was just himself, not a positive parental figure of any kind. If he took Konohamaru home, he would do his best, sure, but it wouldn’t be enough. The thought of his nephew sitting alone in his small apartment for hours, waiting for Asuma to return from work, made his heart constrict.

And so, he had betrayed Konohamaru, and himself, in leaving the boy here.

Konohamaru made to pull away from the embrace. Asuma squeezed him tightly one last time before allowing him to draw back.

Asuma stood up at his full height. “We’ll arrange a day where I can take you out to eat, okay?”

Rather than replying, Konohamaru nodded slowly and swallowed, his face smoothing out and going blank. Asuma couldn’t quite read his expression.

Perhaps he should say something else, something comforting, something that would remind Konohamaru that he wasn’t alone, that he still had family…

Instead, Asuma watched as Konohamaru opened the door, hunching into himself when he walked away down the corridor.

Asuma’s heart broke with the click of the door closing behind him.

*

None of them were speaking, simply concentrating on their work. It made a nice change, Sakura supposed, from their usual bickering.

She glanced up from the letter she was poring over and sighed.

Naruto had apparently given up, now reclining on his back and glaring up at the ceiling from his bed. Sasuke had checked out halfway through decoding a letter and was sitting on his phone, the letter, and his translation of it left to one side.

Neither of them looked happy. She could relate to that: All three of them were feeling the frustration over what had happened earlier: How Gaara and his friends had slipped away while they waited for the ambulance to arrive, how pale Lee had looked when they carted him away. He had turned out fine, of course, and was back to his usual self, but at the time it had been terrifying.

She looked back down at the page in front of her, going back over what she had written.

Sakura frowned at her translation. Surely that couldn’t be right. She read over it again. And again.

After the third time, she said; “Sasuke, come look at this.”

He didn’t look up from his phone. “What is it?”

“A letter I’ve decoded. I want to make sure I’m correct.”

Naruto sat up quickly, twisting his body in all manners of weird ways before finding a comfortable seated position. “Show me!”

“I said Sasuke, idiot!”, she barked back at him as she held the paper out to the other boy.

He took it and read it over, and she watched as his frown deepened. After a moment he crawled forward, lifted the original letter, and stared at it.

Slowly, he said; “I think… You’re right.”

Sakura basked in the minute praise, then remembered what it was that had confused her and frowned.

“What?”, Naruto asked, rocking back and forth on the bed and craning his neck. “What is it?”

“Well… The pronouns used in the letters were always masculine, so I thought the letters might have been from a woman to a man”, she began.

“I know that”, Naruto scoffed. “So what?”

“But they’re also using masculine pronouns for themselves. I think the writer may also have been male.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Naruto tilted his head.

“What I just said!”

“So they’re not love letters?”

“They could be love letters between two men.”

Naruto made a face.

“So, it is a forbidden love, in a way”, said Sakura.

“That’s so weird”, said Naruto.

Sasuke set the original letter he had been holding down. Sakura had almost forgotten he was there; he had gone so quiet he was barely breathing.

He turned towards Sakura. “Yeah. Maybe we shouldn’t show people these.”

“No, come on, it’s our project!”, she protested.

“But it’s weird”, Naruto whined.

“So? It’s obvious that these were written to someone in the house we live in now, and it’s kind of something that’s still relevant for today, right? It makes our project even better if you ask me!”

“I guess”, Sasuke sighed. His dark hair fell over his face in curtains as he leaned back.

Naruto huffed. “Fine. But you’re so bossy, Sakura, this isn’t just your project.”

She chose to respond with a simple glare.

To her left, Sasuke sat back up. “Hey, the signature.”

“Hm?”

“I just realized something”, he mumbled.

Carefully, he lifted a bundle of the other letters, the ones they were yet to transcribe, and leafed through them. Sakura watched his long, pale fingers turning page after page until he held them out to her.

Almost immediately, she understood.

“Oh.”

“Do I have to ask you to explain everything around here?”

Sasuke turned to stare at his roommate with a frosty expression. “How about you try using your brain for once?”

“Hey, give it to me and I’ll figure it out myself!”

Naruto snatched the pages and stared at them, going back and forth between the pages.

Sakura attempted to catch Sasuke’s eyes so that they could share a look of amusement, however, he continued to watch Naruto. She turned to watch the blond boy too. Perhaps he would get it... He wasn't as dumb as she had initially thought him to be: In fact, there were rare moments that made it clear he did have a fair amount of intellect when he thought things through carefully.

Eventually, Sasuke sighed, not giving him the chance to come to the realization on his own. “We thought that strange squiggle was a signature because it looks the same and it's at the bottom of each page. But if you look close, it’s a lot of lines and dots, and it’s a slightly different pattern each time.”

“Okay. So?”

He looked to Sakura, and it took a minute for her to understand he wanted _her_ to answer.

Feeling her cheeks heat up slightly, she explained; “Well, I think it looks like it could be a date. Except in code, perhaps. See, the number of dots is what changes each time? I think those could be the days or maybe even months. But the lines don’t change as much: There are a dozen letters with the exact same number, and then a dozen more with a slightly different pattern, and so on. Those could be the years.”

For the next hour they worked through the patterns, arranging them in what Sakura believed could be chronological order. And now, looking over them, this arrangement certainly made more sense. The first dozen letters or so, which seemed to date from 1945, were merely friendly, none of the lovers' talk of the later letters. The last ones, dated in 1950, were much shorter than the rest.

“I wonder who they are “, she commented with a hum, tracing over the lettering.

Naruto’s head shot up. “They would have records of the old residents here, right? Maybe we can figure it out!”

“Maybe…” Sakura was unsure if they could, or if they should.

He crossed his legs and gripped his knees in his hands, rocking forward to speak to her. “What do we know about them so far? The one they were writing to, who lived here.”

“Okay, so the man lived here with his father and his brother”, Sakura summarised. “There might be other members of the family, but those are the only ones that have been mentioned so far.”

“And the other man lived somewhere in town, probably”, said Sasuke.

“Oh!”, Naruto gasped.

Sakura turned to him. “Huh?”

“I just thought of something else.”

“What is it?”

“Tsunade’s family have been living here for a long time, since before this was a home.” The way he spoke, in an almost rehearsed manner, betrayed that he must have heard the story well over a dozen times. “It only became an orphanage in the 1950s when Tsunade’s grandfather inherited it from his father.”

“His father…”

“Wait. He had a younger brother too, right? I remember seeing photos of them in Tsunade’s office.” So did Sakura: The image of the former owner stood proud and tall on Tsunade’s wall, a smiling man with long dark hair, and a somber light-haired man beside him.

Naruto continued; “And he lived here in the 1940s! It has to be him!”

Sakura frowned. “It can’t be Tsunade’s grandfather, can it? He had kids. He couldn't have been... Well, you know.”

"Some of the details don't make sense, either." Sasuke's tone was blunt. "In this letter, the one I was looking at earlier, the person writing talks about the man they're writing to's brother. He said he has raven hair. Tsunade's great-uncle had light hair."

"What if it was the brother?"

"But he was the youngest. It definitely says they have a younger brother, so it's not him."

“Tsunade’s grandfather had two other brothers who died”, Naruto informed them. “I don’t know when, it was before this place became a home, but it could have been after these letters. Maybe one of them had dark hair.”

“So? Doesn’t mean it’s him!”, said Sakura.

“But it has to be!”, Naruto argued. “He _lived_ here!”

She shook her head adamantly. “No way. Tsunade always talks about how much her grandpa loved her and their family.”

“That doesn’t mean he didn’t also have a secret lover when he was younger!”

“It could have been one of the other brothers", Sasuke mused. "One of them could have died, and that’s what the apology is to do with." He indicated the last five letters, significantly shorter than those before and each one more so than the last, which appeared to be a rambling series of apologies concerning what they simply referred to as ‘the incident which inspired your hatred for me’. “That could also be why the letters were hidden away?”

Sakura shook her head once again. “It could be. But perhaps we have the dates all wrong? There could be another level of coding. What if these letters are more recent than that?”

She stared down at the sheets of paper, the lines of unfamiliar symbols. Just where had they come from?

“They might not have even lived here”, Sasuke said quietly. Sakura looked at him and saw his lips were pressed into a thin line. He met her eyes as he continued; “The letters could have ended up here some other way, doesn’t mean they were addressed here.”

“How?”, Naruto asked.

A bulky figure appeared in the doorway, and Sakura jumped half-out of her skin before she recognized Gai’s distinctive features.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you! I just wanted to let you kids know that Lee is okay and resting.”

“We know.” Sasuke spoke flatly. “We saw him earlier.”

“Excellent.” aiG gave them a thumbs up. “You had all better rest, too, so head to bed soon.

Naruto and Sakura automatically stuck their thumbs up at his back as he turned away, and Sasuke actually chuckled at that.


	7. Chapter 7

The reason that Naruto was late to lunch the following day was that the teacher had kept him back for talking in class, although it wasn't even his fault: It was Sasuke who had provoked him into arguing that yes, algebra is a dumb idea. 

So it was twenty minutes into everyone else's' lunch break that he stepped into the cafeteria alone and scanned the area.

There was no sign of Gaara. Or the other exchange students, for that matter.

Naruto clenched his fists. In a way, he was relieved. He didn’t know what he would do when he next saw the red-haired boy. Even if Lee had insisted he was fine the evening before, Naruto knew that it wasn’t. Lee had been on a lot of pain medication when he said that, too: His pupils had been even larger and rounder than normal. He clearly had not been aware of what he was saying; when he came to his senses, he might agree with Naruto that Gaara needed someone to pummel his face.

Dodging around a group of bigger kids, Naruto craned his neck to look for his friends. He clutched his orange backpack closer to his body and felt his stomach growl, as if aware of its proximity to the food that lay inside his bag.

When he did spot them, at one of their usual long tables, Shikamaru and Kiba were apparently in mid-debate with Sakura and Ino. Ino was waving a stick of celery rather menacingly in the boys’ faces. Chouji, at the end of the table, was munching away on his lunch, happily ignoring the ensuing argument.

Sasuke wasn’t there: Naruto was unsure whether he would be joining them, or if it was one of those days where the boy would slink off by himself to some unknown place and they wouldn’t see him at all. He decided he didn't really care either way.

But that wasn’t what surprised him into standing stock still. No, it was that Hinata was sitting next to Shino at the other end of the table, on a seat dragged over from somewhere else in the canteen. She was hunching slightly, her dark bangs falling over her face.

He stared at her, eyes screwing up slightly in confusion, only to notice that she was staring back. Her strange pale eyes were wide in her face. He smiled and waved at her, and she waved back before looking away.

Naruto’s smile widened.

If he had to pick anyone from their class to join his friend group that wasn’t already there, it probably would have been Hinata. She always used to let him sit next to her back when nobody else really liked him much because he was one of those home kids, and he felt bad now when he saw her sitting alone while he sat with Shikamaru and the others. Kiba seemed to like her, too, which was good; while he watched Kiba nudged her side and showed her something on his phone which made her smile, drawing her into the debate.

He was making his way over to them when he saw Hinata’s face once more turn in his direction and then fall, staring at a point behind him.

What?

Dread flooding his stomach, Naruto made to turn around, only to find somebody loosely grasping his arm from behind.

“Hey!”

He writhed and twisted and turned, images of Lee’s broken arm popping unbidden into his brain. What if this was an ambush? Would his friends come and save him? Surely Hinata would tell them, would point out that he was in trouble.

Another gentler hand touched his other arm and a calm, almost hypnotic, voice said; “Tenten, don’t be so rough with him.”

Naruto found himself being pressed back against the wall of the cafeteria. Looking up, he was met with eyes eerily similar to Hinata’s, also curtained with thick dark hair. Neji.

The taller boy loomed over him, his face unreadable. Tenten was at his side, her hands balled into fists and her eyes fierce.

Releasing him, she said; “Sorry, Naruto.”

“Huh?” Naruto glanced back and forth between them. “What do you two want?” He knew in the back of his mind that he shouldn’t speak to the older students so rudely, but he knew Tenten, and he felt that Neji didn’t deserve any kind of respect from him.

“Lee wasn’t in today, and he hasn’t been answering our messages. Is he okay?”

“Oh.” Relaxing, Naruto laughed. “He’s fine, sure. Were you really worried about old bushy brows? He’s really high or something, though, they gave him a ton of painkillers I think. Tsunade wanted to send him to school but Gai convinced her to let Lee have the day off.”

Tenten let out a sigh. “That’s good.”

“Hm.” Neji’s neutrally serious expression hadn’t changed. “But there’s still the question of what happens now.”

“What do you mean?”, asked Naruto. “Lee’s just broken his arm, he’s going to get better, right?”

“Right.” The older boy’s face was stone cold, devoid of any blood. Naruto struggled not to flinch as he met his gaze. “But we can’t let them think they’ve gotten away with it.”

“Yes!”, Tenten exploded. “That cow was smirking at me earlier, I swear… I can’t believe they would hurt Lee of all people...” Her voice turned morose.

“Well, it was really his own fault for rushing in headfirst like that. Still, it doesn’t excuse what he did.”

“Naruto?” Tt asked, her voice deceptively soft. “Are you in?”

Naruto debated internally. He didn’t want to help Neji. And he really should just go join his friends and eat his lunch, which was still balanced on the tray he had clutched in his hands. But they were right; those exchange students shouldn’t be able to just come in, hurt Lee and get away with it like that.

“… Sure. How are we going to do it?”

*

“Ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream!”

Kakashi shuddered dramatically and dug a finger in one ear. “Is he still on that medication?”

Gai laughed, loud and open. “Are you not enjoying the ice cream song?”

All he received in reply was a strange look from Kakashi above his mask, and he shrunk slightly internally. Turning forward with an amused grin, Gai focused on driving.

Lee had been all prepared to go off to school that morning, his hair tied in its usual plait and his arm in his emerald cast, when Gai had come to inform him that he had spoken with Tsun. The manager of the home had agreed that, with the heavy painkillers Lee was on, he wasn't going to be retaining much information, and as such he could have a day off from school to recover.

Which somehow led to them going to get ice cream. 

Gai had purposefully requested to come in for the early shift that day, since he normally worked nights, as Lee was undoubtedly his favourite of all the kids he worked with. Gai knew he wasn’t meant to have favorites, and he did honestly make an effort to open his heart to all of the children who so needed it, but he couldn’t help it. Lee was such an interesting and engaging young man and one who needed his support. Gai had been flattered the day Lee approached him and asked Gai to help him become more manly.

So today, since he couldn’t bear to see his little protege lounging around the home in sorrow, Gai had come in- relieving a tired Kurenai, who jumped at the chance to swap shifts so she could have a longer sleep, bless her- and decided to take Lee out for ice cream.

And, of course, he had asked Kakashi to tag along.

Maybe that wasn’t of course.

Kakashi had seemed kind of surprised at the invitation, although he had said yes.

Gai liked Kakashi. He had done ever since the mysterious masked man had arrived. He seemed interesting, sitting in the staff room and twirling a pen in his fingers but hadn’t spoken to anybody, besides the odd word to Asuma and Kurenai, in his first week. Gai had wanted to change that, and he had been lucky enough to catch Kakashi on his nightly rounds a couple of times now.

He thought that maybe they were starting to become closer.

Not quite friends, not yet. But maybe they were getting there.

“We’re here”, Gai announced in a fog-horn bellow, and Lee whooped in the backseat.

He could have sworn he heard Kakashi groan.

Lee bounced excitedly the whole way from the car to the store. Gai was slightly worried that his arm would be hurt by the jostling, but if it did hurt at all Lee didn't say anything.

“Alright, Lee”, said Gai as they got into the queue, “what flavour do you want?”

“How many can I try?”, Lee asked, eyes shining brightly.

“As many as you like!”

Gai caught Kakashi eyeing him strangely. Rearranging his mask slightly, the man muttered; “Did Tsunade say you could use her card?”

"Nope, this is on me. So eat to your heart's content, Kakashi." He gave his co-worker a thumbs up as he replied. Kakashi's face seemed somehow even paler than before.

A group at the front of the line- a woman with a gaggle of three young kids that loped about her legs like puppies- exited the store, cones clasped in their hands, and the trio shuffled forward, now able to get a look at the glass front shielding the tubs of ice cream.

Lee's face was almost pressed to the glass, excitedly pointing out the flavours.

"… And I want to try the fruity ones, too, but I want those in a separate bowl because the fruity sweet ones and the candy-sweet ones don’t always mix. Except for strawberry and chocolate, those always mix. Although maybe I’ll need a third bowl for the not-sweet ones. Like matcha. Wait, is matcha sweet? I thought it was bitter." He looked up at the adults.

Kakashi glanced from Lee to Gai and then back to Lee. "I'll get matcha."

"Oh." Lee paused. "Can I have some?"

"… Sure, if you finish all the others first."

Lee bounced back upright. "Okay!"

The line seemed to be moving faster now; they were almost at the front, just behind a teenage couple who seemed to be deliberating over what flavour to pick. Ah, young love. Gai could understand: Not the young love part, maybe, but the difficult decision facing them. There was row after row of tantalisingly cool scoops to pick from. He himself was still unsure what it was that he wanted.

"I wish I had two hands right now", Lee sighed, and Gai followed his line of sight, spotting a kid holding an ice cream cone. Did Lee want two cones?

Clasping a hand on the boy's shoulder, Gai said; "Don’t you worry, Lee, once that cast is off we’ll do some gentle exercises together, and you’ll be back to full strength in no time, promise."

Just then, the couple departed, and they finally arrived at the cashier's desk.

The young lady working at the register gave them an incredulous look when Gai prompted Lee to say what he wanted, and Lee reeled off his list.

"I know", Kakashi said. He was looking at her rather sympathetically.

"What do you mean you know, huh?", asked Gai. He elbowed Kakashi, who sighed.

Eventually, after several more minutes of debate and payment and two trips to their table, the three of them were sat in a small booth, Kakashi with his bowl of matcha, Gai with a bowl of chocolate and strawberry, and Lee with two bowls; one for his fruity sweets and one for his candy sweets.

Gai took a bite of his ice cream, letting the cool flavours wash over his tongue. The days were feeling warmer lately, and it was a refreshing experience.

He glanced up and paused in his eating when he noticed that Kakashi had removed his mask. He felt a slight flush rising ridiculously to his cheeks: Kakashi's face wasn't what he had expected.

Although Gai never put much stock in gossip, he had sort of suspected that Genma and Anko's speculations, that Kakashi had been horribly maimed in some way, hence the constant use of the mask, was correct. Especially since he had mentioned the car accident.

Except, rather than being riddled by scars and twisted with injuries, Kakashi's face was... Well, nicely arranged. Handsome, even, perhaps. His skin was smooth and pale, his lips slightly darker and made darker still by the coolness of the ice cream as it passed over them.

As Gai watched Kakashi stopped suddenly, making an odd expression.

"Kakashi? Are you alright?"

"Ah. The man's face twisted some more. "Brain freeze."

Lee and Gai's laughter rang out together, and it grew when Kakashi demanded to know how they didn't also have it, when they were eating much faster than him.

"Maybe we just have superior bodies", Gai crowed. He high fived Lee, who had barely spoken in the past ten minutes since they sat down.

Lee ate all of his and then half of Kakashi’s- which Kakashi picked at almost deliberately slowly, Gai noticed- and then begged Gai to let him buy a cone, too. Kakashi gave him the money, this time, and told him one cone only.

How funny.

As though aware of Gai's amused look despite being turned to watch Lee walk away, Kakashi muttered; "I feel bad, you paying for all of it. You shouldn’t have to."

Crossing his arms, Gai let out a long sigh and leaned in towards Kakashi. “Ahh, isn’t this nice? Bringing back memories of your dad taking you for ice cream.”

“My dad died when I was quite young.” Kakashi’s voice and face were impassive as he spoke but he still didn’t look at Gai.

“Ah.” The smile froze and dropped from Gai’s face. His attempts at conversation with Kakashi always seemed to fall so flat. “Sorry. Mine too. Well, I was sixteen, which isn’t that young, but… I was too young. He was my best friend.”

Gai lowered his head, not wanting his companion to see his eyes watering. And he especially didn’t want Lee, who had just reached the register to pay, to see, to know what he was crying about. Lee… All of those kids… To have lost so much, some of them even younger than him...

There was a soft touch on his shoulder and he looked up.

Kakashi was looking at him now. Gai’s eyes drifted down to the hand, still on his shoulder, and back up to Kakashi’s kind gaze.

Kakashi’s words came lightly, but with a sincerity that Gai couldn’t doubt. “I’m sorry. I’m sure he was a good man.”

“The best”, he replied proudly.

He wiped his eyes as Lee returned and sat down beside him. He had an ice cream cone.

The boy licked at his ice cream, then turned between the two men with worried glances. “Gai? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Lee”, Kakashi told him firmly. “What flavour did you get?”

“Strawberry.”

“Excellent!” Gai smiled at him and was encouraged when Lee smiled back.

Lee hummed in contentment the whole ride back. Gai turned the radio up and sang along. Kakashi kept sticking his head out of the window; like a dog, Gai thought. It passed quickly, and they were all too soon back at the home.

Upon arrival, Lee spotted Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, apparently freshly arrived home from school, and raced off to join them. He and Sakura spoke a few words and then disappeared in the direction of the rooms.

Walking closer, it soon became apparent to Gai why Sakura had been so eager to abandon her friends: Naruto and Sasuke were arguing about something, their heads closed together and their hushed tones aggressive.

“I wonder what all that’s about”, Gai remarked as they strolled past.

Kakashi hummed, turning his head to keep his eyes fixed on the boys arguing. He must have a pretty long neck, Gai thought, under the turtlenecks he always wears, to be able to crane around like that.

Gai was about to elbow him in the side and tell him to keep up when Kakashi’s eyebrows shot up and there was the sound of footsteps approaching rapidly.

A second later he was elbowed out of the way by a small blur of yellow and orange.

Naruto was staring up at Kakashi, eyes huge. “Kakashi, can- sorry, Gai- we need you to help us with a history project we’re working on!”

Sasuke had taken to lingering against the wall, several feet from Tsunade’s office, and was glaring in their direction. Gai shot him a smile and received no response.

Kakashi scratched the back of his neck. He also looked from Naruto’s pleading face to Sasuke and back several times, and just once his eyes flickered in Gai's direction.

Then he shrugged.

“Great!”

Naruto grabbed Kakashi’s wrist with both hands and began to tug him away with all of the enthusiasm that only a thirteen-year-old up to no good could have.

Kakashi almost overbalanced, his face contorting in panic, and Gai tried not to laugh as he was towed away.

Ah. The many joys and mysteries of youth.

Turning on his heel, Gai headed in the direction of the staff room. Along the way, he spied Konohamaru and his friends hanging around in the corridor by Naruto's room and paused to give them some of his usual indispensable advice.

*

The house was silent when Hinata got home. She hadn't expected anything else.

She dropped her school bag in the hallway, knowing she had two hours to take it upstairs before father came home after picking Hanabi up from her friend’s house. There had been a few times she had left it there and forgotten, and then there had been trouble, but she had grown more conscious of where she left her things over the last couple of years.

In the mirror in the hall, she brushed her fringe from her forehead and wiped the sweat off. She couldn’t wait for the cold weather to come back when she could wear her hoodies and jackets comfortably.

Normally when she came home from school, she and Neji would watch the TV together for half an hour or so, before they had to start dinner. It was one of the things she always looked forward to. They never spoke, asides from when Neji asked if she minded if he put one of his shows on- she never did- but it felt good to have company.

She hadn’t seen Neji all day. Father had told her he was staying home because he didn’t feel very well.

In fact, she hadn't seen him since he and Tenten had confronted Naruto at lunch the day before. She had wanted to ask him what that had all been about, but as of yet hadn't had the opportunity.

Even when she did, she doubted that she would ask.

Maybe she should go up to his room, just to make sure he was okay. It was her fault he wasn’t very well, after all. It always was, one way or another. Then again, perhaps he wouldn’t want to see her.

While she was still debating it, she moved forward to hover in the doorway near the base of the stairs that lead into the front room and the rest of the house.

Something beyond the front room caught her eye.

Neji was sitting in the dining room. He had pulled one of the fancy tall-backed chairs that they ate at each night away from the table towards the glass door and sitting staring out into the garden. He had his face on one hand and his long hair draped down over his arm, splaying across it.

The surprised noise she made alerted him to her presence.

When he first spun round to look at her, his mouth dropped open, then immediately pressed into a firm line.

“Oh. You’re home.”

He got up and Hinata realized that he’d had his right leg up on one of the other chairs, a bag of frozen peas pressed to his thigh. As he stood he staggered a little, and Hinata rushed forward to help him.

Up close, she could see that there was a cut on his lip, which was strange: His face was usually okay. She couldn’t see where else Neji was hurting, but he winced and drew away as she reached out a hand to help him.

“No!”

She jumped back.

He continued, slower and quieter; “I’m okay.”

Hinata stared at her cousin for a long time. Neji moved past her, clearly favoring his left side, and made his way into the front room, settling on the stiff armchair that Hinata didn’t like.

She followed him into the room, knotting her fingers together.

“Um… Would you like to watch TV with me, Neji?”

Neji tilted his head back against the back of the chair and closed his eyes. “No.”

Hinata shifted from one foot to another.

Eventually, she said; “I’m sorry, Neji. I’m so sorry.”

He looked at her. “Whatever. Just go do what you normally do. Get changed.”

“Okay”, Hinata replied, happy at being given the opportunity to get back into her usual routine. “I’ll just- er, I’ll start dinner-”

She began making her way to the kitchen.

“Don’t. I already started.”

Hinata turned back to her cousin, mouth open. “What, Neji?”

“It’s in the oven.”

“Oh. Okay. Thank you.”

“It’s my job anyway.”

“I know, but…”

“If he knew you always did it, I’d get in trouble.”

“Oh.”

Hinata went upstairs to her room and sat down on her bed. Was Neji still mad at her? It was hard to tell with him.

After an hour she heard cluttering and went back downstairs. Neji was moving around, trying to set the table. He usually waited until father came home to do that.

She went to the kitchen to grab the cutlery, helping Neji with setting their usual places; father at one end of the table, Hinata and Hanabi next to him, and Neji opposite Hanabi.

Hinata often helped Neji with setting the table. Only when father wasn’t home, though; he would never let her go out of her way like that.

As Neji set the food on their plates he saw that he had given her more of the good meat, so she figured that meant they were okay now. She hoped that was what it meant anyway, and not that he was just being obedient.

The two of them sat at the table in silence and waited for her father to come home.


	8. Chapter 8

In truth, Sasuke was not very happy about having Kakashi help them with their 'project'. It was a stupid idea: Of course it was, Naruto had thought of it. Kakashi being there would suck out whatever small scraps of fun were involved in it; not that there were many to begin with.

Still, he was unable to stop Naruto. As ever. He walked behind him as the blond boy dragged the worker into their shared room. If Sakura was there, maybe she would have been able to help him. But she wasn’t.

So Sasuke dragged his feet, lingering outside in the hallway as Naruto began to go into far too much detail about the letters they had found, and the way they had deciphered them. They had actually come quite far, Sasuke thought: There were only a dozen or so left, out of about fifty that they had discovered. Sakura’s enthusiasm was to blame for that, along with his own intrigue once he had uncovered the letters’ link to the history of the town, in addition to Naruto’s stupid competitive streak that drove them all to work harder.

The fact that Kakashi had thus far been silent throughout Naruto’s ongoing rant was unnerving. Sasuke found him unnerving in general: Just something about him that was distantly familiar. Possibly some small habit that reminded him of a family member, although he couldn’t tell what.

Inching forward until he was just inside the room, Sasuke took in the scene before him. Naruto was staring up at Kakashi with round eyes, holding the letters and their translated copies out toward him like some kind of sacrificial offering.

Kakashi took them and leafed through them, his pitch-black eyes widening minutely as he scanned each page.

“A code?”, he muttered, and then glanced up at the children. “Where did you find these?”

If Naruto didn’t want Kakashi to know that they were in the attic, he should have at least said something instead of simply standing there and shuffling his feet. Sasuke frowned. This was the problem with bringing Kakashi in to help them.

Sighing, he stepped in to help his roommate. “Naruto was digging around under one of the floorboards under his closet.” He rolled his eyes. “The idiot.”

“Huh.” Kakashi looked back down at the pages, and then up again, focusing on Naruto.

“Yep.” He scratched at the back of his head. “I didn’t mean to. I saw the board was sticking up a little and I was thinking about burying a time capsule there. I only wanted to see if there was room for one.”

“Huh”, Kakashi said again, slowly. And then, to Sasuke’s surprise, he continued; “This is… Interesting.” He glanced down and then up. “If you want me to help you with these, I suppose I can try.”

“Yeessss!” Naruto raised his hand, going in for the high five.

Kakashi stared at him.

The blond boy mimed high-fiving.

The man raised his eyebrows and, after several seconds, said; “Well, I didn’t realize we were at that stage yet, but alright”, and gave possibly the least enthusiastic high five in history, wrist as limp as lettuce.

Sasuke snickered, then raised one balled fist to his lips to hide it.

“Now that you’re here we can look for information!”, Naruto yelped.

“How?”

“You can look at libraries and stuff.”

Sasuke understood the reasoning. Kakashi was an adult so he would know how to research all of that stuff.

Hm. Maybe having an adult on board wasn’t Naruto’s worst idea ever.

“I’ll take a look”, Kakashi was promising Naruto. He put his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels, contemplative.

“Great!” Naruto marched over to Kakashi and then proceeded to shove him back out of the room, pushing against Kakashi’s back with both hands. The man staggered backward with a surprised expression, eyes bulging out. “Get on with it and we will rendezvous again soon.”

Sasuke was surprised that Naruto even knew of that word’s existence.

He couldn’t help laughing at the bemused expression on Kakashi’s face, appearing through the open doorway just before Naruto slammed it closed on him. Before Naruto could turn back to Sasuke, he bit down on his fist to keep his laughter hidden.

*

The hard wood against Tenten’s back was slightly uncomfortable, but she had found Neji leaning against it before the bell rang, and so she had gone to join him. Neither of them spoke.

For the last few days, it had felt as though Neji had put up a barrier around himself that she thought they had broken through a long time ago, before summer. It had been months since she felt so on edge around him.

She thought that perhaps if she had been able to speak to him properly at lunch the other day, everything might have been better. That had been the beginning of the divide, after his argument with Hinata. Only the two of them had sat on the field without talking and, just as she had worked up the courage to ask him about home and Hinata and a bunch of other issues flitting through her mind like angry bumblebees, Naruto had come running to tell them that Lee was being taken to the hospital.

Not that Lee or Naruto were to blame for interrupting them, of course. Lee hadn’t intentionally gone to get his arm broken. It was that weird kid from abroad.

Tenten hadn’t seen him around either, thankfully. She realized her mouth had set in an unhappy line and sighed, leaning on Neji’s shoulder to stand on her tiptoes and peer over the crowds. It was supposed to be Lee’s first day back, but so far there had been no sign of him.

Neji gave her a look, and she swiftly let go of him and dropped back onto her heels.

What if Lee didn’t come back? What if they decided they didn’t want him anymore, at the home, and sent him somewhere else? That could happen, right? When they had first met Lee had only just arrived in town, from… Somewhere. He never really spoke about it, other than he couldn’t remember much, since he was quite young. What if they sent him away again because of this?

It would just be her and Neji, except it might not be her and Neji anymore. It had taken a long time for them to get to the point of even being friends, and Lee’s unparalleled enthusiasm had been a large part of that process. He had told them about his parents, and she had shared about her own crazy family, and Lee had told them about Gai, who was his family in all but blood. Without Lee, she wouldn’t be able to completely tear down Neji’s barriers. Not by herself.

Maybe, she wondered, they hadn’t become as close as she had thought they had.

“Tenten.” She blinked, staring at Neji as he jerked his chin.

There was a flash of green and white and Lee appeared before them, cast and all.

“Lee!”

“Hey, guys!” His smile was as wide as ever, no sign of pain, which she understood to be a good sign. Yet, at the same time, there was something off about him: His voice was slightly weary, his eyes dulled, and it had her heart seizing up. Weariness was not something that she associated with Lee.

“Lee”, Neji greeted, still more subdued. But Tenten could see the slight smile that gave away how glad he was to see their friend, the way he straightened up and away from the wall. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, guys, really.” He rolled his injured shoulder, wincing slightly as he did so before his eyes went wide. Something had caught his attention, and his head snapped to the right for just a moment before he swiftly turned to his friends once more.

Following his line of sight, Tenten spotted them: The two older exchange students. The girl with the spiked hair and the strange boy with black clothes. They were both staring in their direction. Tenten narrowed her eyes.

Neji must have also seen the same thing, for he also shifted slightly, his hands tensing.

Lee’s hands tightened on Tenten’s arm. “Guys, no. It was just an accident. You don’t need to take revenge for me.”

Tenten wrenched her gaze away, and she and Neji each put an arm around Lee’s shoulders, although she immediately turned her glare back to the exchange students. As she watched, the girl met her eyes and snorted, shaking her head. If it wasn’t for Lee, Tenten would have walked right over there and punched her smug face.

“Is Gaara not back yet?”, Lee asked as they steered him away along the corridor.

If she hadn’t known better, Tenten would have thought he seemed worried.

“No. Hopefully he won’t show his face for a while”, Neji answered.

Lee frowned. “I hope he hasn’t been sent home because of me.”

Tenten pulled the boys to a halt to one side of the hall. “Hey. No”, she said firmly. “Lee, he brought this on himself, if anything.”

“Yeah, you don’t need to sympathize with that freak”, spat Neji.

“I mean… I’m not exactly going to be his best friend or anything”, Lee protested. “I just don’t think it is worth starting trouble over what was clearly an accident. He seemed as distressed as anybody else when I was injured.” Seeing that neither of his friends looked convinced, he added; “I am just happy that I do not have to write in class anymore. A teaching assistant will be writing for me, so I just have to tell them what I want to write. I’m sure my grades will improve immediately.”

“Yeah, but then the poor teaching assistant will have a sore arm trying to keep up with your mouth”, Neji teased, and, as the three of them laughed, the bell rang.

They filed into their class, shuffling along behind their classmates.

As she made her way to her usual desk, Tenten froze.

Sitting right beside her usual spot was the exchange student who always wore black.

She hissed to Neji; “Why is he here?”

He was frowning in the same direction, his usually wide pale eyes narrowed. “I don’t know.”

In silence, they took their normal seats.

The boy kept staring at them, Tenten noticed throughout the first several minutes of class, although whenever she looked over he pretended not to. He really was odd. To be fair, she reasoned to herself, Neji was kind of staring- or glaring- as well.

The tension felt thick around her. Tenten gripped her pen tightly. Sooner or later, it was going to have to break.

“Hey.” Lee leaned over, attempting to whisper, and Tenten froze. Lee’s whispers were incredibly loud. Her and Neji’s heads both whipped from him to the teacher and back. “Hey.”

“Lee”, Tenten snapped, while Neji coughed to cover up her words. “Stop it.”

“What do you want?”, a voice asked, and Tenten jumped. She had forgotten the foreign boy was so close to her.

As he raised an eyebrow, Tenten floundered. “We-”

“Silence. I will not tolerate anybody speaking over the teacher”, the teaching assistant hovering near Lee’s seat said, turning a beady eye on their small grouping, and they immediately lapsed into quiet.

Lee bowed his head. “Sorry, miss. It was my fault.”

He seemed unhappy, but it did the trick: He stopped trying to talk, paying attention to what was being said at the front of the room, and half-slumping across his desk in an awkward imitation of his usual pose.

Tenten tried to copy him; however, with each passing moment, she felt her curiosity rising.

Out of the corner of her mouth, she asked; “What are you doing in this room?”

The boy started, blinking at her for a moment as though unsure whether she was speaking to him.

When she flickered a glance toward him, he replied, his voice remarkably clear; “I’m in this year.” He looked around. “This is a classroom, isn’t it?”

“You weren’t here last week.”

“Yeah, well…” He seemed to lose some of his cool, struggling to find the words. After a second, he continued; “They seemed to think I might need extra classes. For Japanese. I was in the speech and language development group.”

“I was in that class as a kid!”, Lee burst out, and Tenten once again nearly leaped out of her skin. She had not realized he had been able to hear. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the teaching assistant had moved to circle another group at the front of the class: They weren’t writing anything just then so Lee didn’t need her.

“I believe it”, Neji muttered.

A smile crossed Tenten’s face briefly, but when she heard the exchange student snort she, Neji and Lee went silent as one and turned in unison to stare at him.

He stared back defiantly, broad face haughty, before facing forward and whispering; “Well, if you’re not going to say anything else…”

“Why is your brother like that?”, Neji demanded in a hushed voice.

The boy regarded him. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Don’t say shit about my brother.”

Tenten frowned. She had heard some people saying that they were siblings however she had thought that might have just been a joke. She found herself leaning back to avoid getting in the way of the conversation.

“Did he get in trouble?”, Lee asked. “For what he did?”

“My brother is fine”, the boy answered stiffly.

Leaning forward and dropping his voice low, Lee said; “Tell him I forgive him, please.”

“What?”, Tenten muttered, frowning at her foolish friend.

“Lee.” Neji scowled.

Lee shook his head. “It was partially my fault. I should not have run at him like that. And although he was wrong to behave the way he did, I am sure he did not mean to break my arm like that when he pushed me.”

The exchange student shrugged. “I don’t know. He was kind of a violent kid.”

Neji sniffed. “Are you defending your brother or not?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? Silence”, the teaching assistant scolded behind them, and they all froze.

After she had moved away again and a considerable amount of time had passed, Tenten turned again to stare at the boy. He met her gaze challengingly, without looking away.

“Your Japanese is very good”, she blurted, before she could help it.

He stared down at his desk for a moment, before returning a good-natured smile to her. She decided that it was a good thing it was this one in their class, rather than the older sister who continuously smirked at her, or the psychotic younger brother.

He said; “Yeah, well, I’m the best out of the three of us. Well, Temari is good too, she’s super smart, but I like Japanese stuff more than her.”

“How come your brother- Gaara- isn’t as good?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think Gaara is good at talking… In general.”

“Makes sense”, Neji snorted, and then all three of them were jumping as a book thudded down on Lee’s desk to their right.

“If I hear any of you talking one more time”, the teaching assistant began, and Tenten ducked her head, swapping an amused glance with Neji to her right and then, briefly, with the boy to her left, before she thought better of it and looked away.

“Yes, miss”, she muttered and heard the boys chorusing with her. “Sorry, miss.”

*

When he entered the bustling cafeteria, Naruto was surprised to find that their small group appeared to have grown in size.

Beside their usual long table, Lee, Tenten, and Neji sat at a small four-seater one. Lee and Tenten, sitting on the side closest to them, were occasionally turning around to speak to Sakura, who sat at the very end. Neji, seated opposite his friends, was merely eating quietly, his head and all of his limbs seemingly tucked into his body but his sharp eyes still clearly visible as they darted left and right.

Naruto attempted to catch his attention and felt those steely eyes stop dead on him. As he sat down, he gave a friendly wave, but Neji must not have seen it because he didn’t react. Instead, he turned away.

Fine. Remembering what had happened between Neji and Hinata previously, he dropped his hand. Who wanted to be friends with Neji anyway? Naruto loved Lee like a brother, and Tenten was okay for a girl, but if they wanted to spend time with Neji they could go sit as far away from them as possible.

Sighing, Naruto dropped into his seat next to Sasuke.

As soon as he had sat down, Sasuke said; “My brother is coming to visit today.”

Naruto looked at him from the corner of his eye. Sasuke was staring at his food and prodding it suspiciously with a knife. Naruto could understand: The cafeteria food wasn’t always the best, although it was good that Sasuke had managed to buy some and learn from first-hand experience.

“Oh.” Naruto struggled to swallow his jealousy and remember to simply be happy for his friend. “That will be nice for you.”

Sasuke nodded. “Yes. I think he’s taking me out for dinner.”

Naruto swallowed again. “Have fun.”

Glancing up, he saw Kiba and Shino- walking together, as Naruto often saw them these days- joining them with their food.

When he sat down, Kiba stared at Naruto until Naruto was frowning.

“What do you want, freak?”

“That Neji”, Kiba muttered, ignoring the jibe, and then shook his head furiously.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. “What about him?”

“Hinata told me something about him. It turns out he’s only half-Japanese.”

“So?” So were some of their other friends, including Shikamaru.

“Well”, Shino said slowly, and then didn’t say anything else, staring down at his plate. Naruto could see his face reflected both in the plate, and then back again in his glasses, a pale ghostly Shino wavering in his lenses.

“Well what?”, Naruto asked.

“I was just thinking.” Shino paused; swallowed; continued. “I can’t imagine her father likes that much. He’s a member of the town council and apparently, even for them, he’s very hardcore on traditional values and ‘purity’.”

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, staring up from where he was lazing with his head on the table a seat along from Kiba. “How do you know who the town council are?”

“Oh, his mom does some work for them”, Kiba answered.

There was a moment of silence in which Shino stared at Kiba with wide eyes. Naruto was also surprised: He had seen them together, sure, but he hadn’t known that Kiba and Shino were that close. Although he supposed they were working on their project together. He could remember seeing Shino’s dad in the past and thinking that he looked like some kind of a hippy. Perhaps his mom was the one Shino got his sensible attitude from.

“Your parents were part of the town council too, right, Sasuke?”, Shino asked, but Naruto thought that he and Sasuke may have been the only ones who had heard him.

Naruto hadn’t known that.

He turned to Sasuke, waiting for an answer, but Sasuke merely continued to stare across the room without speaking for the remainder of their lunch break.

When it became clear that he would not receive a reply, Shino shrugged and continued eating.

Naruto found his gaze drifting across to where Neji sat. He didn't look particularly different than anyone else in their school. The notion that Hinata's dad would treat him any different because he wasn't Japanese was a ridiculous one, he decided. Still, a pit of unexplainable fear locked itself in place in his stomach.

He took a long drink from his water bottle to wash it out.

*

A muffled “Come in” came when Sakura knocked softly on the door, and she took a deep breath. She had half-hoped by knocking that quietly that she would not be heard, and she could come back with Naruto and Sasuke’s support.

But she had drawn the short straw, and it was a continuation of her bad luck that Tsunade had beckoned her into the office.

So she creaked open the wooden door and stepped through quickly, closing it behind her and remaining there without approaching the desk.

Tsunade was leaning back in her chair, fingers laced over her stomach. She raised one blonde eyebrow. “Sakura? Everything okay?”

“Yes. Thank you, Tsunade.”

When she said nothing more, Tsunade frowned. “What do you need?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” She twisted her linked hands behind her back and scuffed one foot.

Tsunade’s frown deepened and she straightened in her chair. “The school hasn’t said anything else, have they?”

“The school?”, Sakura repeated, bewildered.

“About your hair?”

“Oh.” She had forgotten about that.

“Because if they have”, Tsunade continued, “I’ll speak to them. You know I have your back on this, Sakura, and if this is how you want to express yourself-”

“Oh, no, Tsunade, no!” Sakura moved swiftly closer to the manager, leaving the comfort of the walls and stepping into the center of the room. “I mean, thank you, for standing by me, but it’s not actually about that.”

Tsunade’s mouth hung open for a moment before it snapped shut. She regarded Sakura levelly. “Hm. What’s it about then?”

“Actually…” The girl widened her eyes, trying to look as innocent as possible. “I was just curious because we have this project at school, a history project.”

“I was never much good at history”, sniffed Tsunade.

“No, it’s to do with, well… Family history, and…” She tried to force tears into her eyes, only to see Tsunade was watching suspiciously, and she realized fake tears would not fool Tsunade.

In truth, that was one of the things she admired about the woman: Sakura had been in a few homes over the years, but Tsunade was by far one of the most honest and level-headed managers that she had met. She was sharp, too. A twinge of guilt struck her at the thought of Tsunade finding out that she was not telling her why she had really come. She bit her lip and toed the carpet with one foot.

“I wanted to know about your family history”, she admitted. That much was true at least. “Because your family history is also the history of the home, in a way.”

“Alright.” Tsunade leaned forward. “What would you like to know about, exactly?”

Sakura searched inward. Where to begin?

“Who created the home?”, she asked.

“The actual house itself- the original house- was built by my great-great-grandfather in his old age, for his son. My great grandfather.” As she spoke, Tsunade rose from behind her desk and began to wander the room, pointing at various photos and tracing frames. Sakura followed her with her eyes. “I never knew him, he died before I was born, but my grandfather and uncle- great-uncle, that is; my grandfather’s younger brother- talked about him sometimes. It used to be the family manor before it became what it is today.”

“When did it become a home for children?”

“In the 1950s. When my grandfather took over. It was only a boys’ home initially- that’s when Jiraiya was here.”

“Jiraiya was here?”, Sakura blurted out.

Tsunade paused in her walking, moving to lean on her desk. “Yes. I forget some of you didn’t know. I used to visit in the Summer; that was when I first met him. I had a few friends here.”

“Oh. When did it open up to girls too?”

“When Hiruzen took over, in the 1980s”, said Tsunade. When Sakura said nothing more, she asked; “Was there anything else you wanted to know?”

Sakura’s mind had gone blank. ‘Did anyone in your family or that you know of have a secret gay lover that they wrote to in code’, she wanted to ask, but she didn’t know how well that question would be received. Naruto had already risked telling Kakashi about the letters, and Sakura didn’t think for a second that he hadn’t guessed that they were doing something they shouldn’t have been when they found them. Tsunade would put two and two together in an instant and, unlike Kakashi, she would say something.

She swallowed. “No. That’s all for now. Thank you so much, Tsunade. I might think of some more questions, though.”

“Of course.” Tsunade nodded. “I like talking about this place. Not many people want to listen, sadly, so I’m glad you’re taking an interest.”

Sakura bowed her own head in respect and then headed back out into the corridor, releasing a deep breath when the door swung shut behind. Going over the information Tsunade had given her in her head so as not to forget, she padded back along the hallway, wincing at the feeling of the cold on the soles of her bare feet.

She had barely stepped inside of Naruto and Sasuke’s room when they essentially jumped her.

Naruto was immediately asking questions, bouncing about where she stood in the doorway: “Well, what did you find out? Did Tsunade tell you who wrote the letters? What did she say?”

“Naruto, give her some space”, Sasuke, her savior, scolded. He turned to her, eyes cool and half-lidded. He really was very good-looking, she thought dimly. “What did you find out?”

Sakura stepped inside and made sure the corridor was empty before she closed the door. Turning to the two boys, she gave them a brief yet detailed report of the conversation.

“Huh”, Naruto said, when she had finished speaking and the silence had dragged on for several seconds.

Sasuke was frowning almost as deeply as his roommate and had been since a few seconds after she started speaking. “That doesn’t really get us anywhere.”

“Yes it does!”, Naruto cried, and they turned to stare at him as he stood on his toes, chest puffed up in front of him. “It has to have been Tsunade’s uncle!”

“What?” Sakura didn’t quite follow his logic. “How?”

“He’s the only man in the family who didn’t marry, duh.”

Sasuke cuffed him about the ear with one hand. “Just because he didn’t get married doesn’t mean he wrote the letters, idiot.”

“It also doesn’t match up with what it says in the letters”, Sakura said slowly, pondering. Something from the letters came back to her. “They talk about being the eldest son: It has to be Tsunade’s grandfather. He was the eldest, and the timeline matches up since he lived here then!”

“But he was married”, Naruto pointed out. “And he had a kid.”

“So? Doesn’t mean he didn’t also have a male lover when he was younger.”

“Huh?” Naruto looked very confused. Sakura sighed internally.

“The younger brother”, Sasuke said abruptly, and she turned to look at him. “Is he the grumpy guy with pale hair in all those old photos?”

Sakura nodded. “Yes. Tobirama.” She coughed slightly, choking on the air, and both of the boys waited for her to continue. “Tsunade’s grandfather was named Hashirama. He's the one with long, dark hair.”

Naruto cocked his head. He was still frowning; almost a pout. “Are you sure they didn’t just have guests who would stay over? Didn’t people used to do that, entertain guests and stuff? Or maybe a servant, if they had those here, I don’t know. Maybe someone else staying here wrote the letters?”

Turning to him, Sakura snapped; “Why are you so against it being Hashirama?”

“I don’t know…” Naruto paused, as though asking himself the same question. “It just seems weird. I mean, that’s Tsunade’s grandpa!”

Sasuke crossed his arms and looked between the two of them. “Look, at least we know a little more now. We could probably look up their names and find out more about them.”

That was a good idea, Sakura supposed, and she said as much.

Over the next few hours, the three of them turning to the internet as their main resource; except there was little further information available other than what Tsunade had provided and a few photos. They debated and argued and ended up going around in circles, googling variations of the same question, and getting nowhere. Sakura felt jaw clenching and unclenching. Naruto was still arguing that there might have been someone else there, and it was getting on her nerves.

She was lying on the rug by Naruto, who had his head near her socked feet. When she dropped her phone onto her face, it bounced off and landed on his ankle. They groaned in unison.

“I give up”, she hissed, sitting up to fish for her phone. “I’m tired.”

Naruto joined her, propping himself upright so that the two of them diagonally faced each other. Sakura let out a sigh and pushed her hair back with both hands.

It was then that she noticed that Sasuke was sitting on his bed, staring down his phone, and hadn’t said anything for some time.

“Sasuke?”, she asked cautiously. Had he discovered something?

When he didn’t look up, Naruto also asked; “Sasuke? Hey, Sasuke?” He swallowed. “Wasn’t your brother coming today?”

Sakura looked at him sharply, and then up at the clock. It was late: Almost time for dinner.

She remembered the last time Sasuke’s brother was supposed to come: How he had lain down and not spoken to them for hours, until in the end, Sakura had gone back to her room, stomach churning.

Her fears were confirmed when Sasuke murmured; “He had to work late. He said he’ll come another time.” He didn’t look up.

Sakura wanted to reassure him, to tell him that his brother was just busy, that he would come. But she had been in other homes with other children that she had repeated the same lies to, and they never worked out well.

So instead she moved to sit next to him on the bed, and felt Naruto joining them on Sasuke’s other side, and the three of them sat like that until they were called to eat, sharing their warmth without speaking.


	9. Chapter 9

Why Kakashi chose to get up early and go to the library before work, he couldn’t say. Those kids had been getting to him. Them and their letters.

In all honesty, it was an interesting find. Not exactly the scoop of the century, but a strange thing to find tucked away in a care home. It was good to see them getting invested in something like that, he supposed.

He zombie-shuffled his way through the line at the cafeteria that had been tacked on as an afterthought to the back of the library, collecting a cup of coffee through the small hole in the wall, and drank it while hiding in the personal relationships section until a couple came in and kept awkwardly glancing at him, at which point he decided it was likely time to get moving. He was almost done with his coffee anyway.

Downing the last of it, Kakashi tossed the paper cup into the trash before making his way up to the local archives: They were far more strict up there about who brought what in, partly because of the delicate nature of some of the documents they housed and partly because, since it was so quiet, Kakashi thought they probably had nothing much else to do.

He spent half an hour or so perusing the archives for information but very little revealed itself to him. There were some plans of the home and its grounds over the years, a handful of news articles from when it first opened as an orphanage, a few documents relating to Tsunade’s family: Birth and marriage and death certificates. Kakashi was able to jot down a few dates before a glance at the clock prompted him to hurry things up. There was nothing obvious that stood out to him, yet he tried to remember any names that had come up in the event that they became relevant later on.

His drive to the home was pleasant. Calming. Kakashi usually listened to music while he drove but, occasionally, especially in the morning when he was tired, he would allow the silence to hang in there. He liked being able to hear the birds singing in the trees, the small stream flowing near his apartment, and if there was another car on the road.

The home itself felt eerily quiet when he arrived, despite it being a weekday morning. Most of them must have been gathered in their rooms or getting ready for school. Kakashi stood in the center of the reception, quiet and dark. Even the welcome desk was abandoned, although he was sure that Shizune likely wasn’t too far away.

Grateful that he wouldn’t have to pick his way through crowds of children without tripping over them, Kakashi shook himself and began to walk through the halls, searching for signs of life.

Without really thinking about it, he found himself heading in the direction of the staffroom. The kids would surely latch onto him once they saw him, so having another coffee would certainly help him to prepare for that.

Kakashi paused when he saw that Lee’s door was open.

Cautiously, he took a few more steps forward and glanced inside.

The boy was sitting on a wobbly stool with Gai crouched just behind him. A towel was draped over his shoulders, and chunks of shiny black hair littered the floor. Gai had a pair of scissors clasped between a thumb and forefinger and was squinting to ensure that all of Lee’s hair was the same length.

It was a shocking transformation: Gone was the long plait, and in its place was a bowl-cut similar to Gai’s.

Momentarily Kakashi considered making Gai jump, only to realize that it could potentially cause him to slip up and ruin Lee’s haircut: Or, as much as it could be ruined.

He waited until Gai had done his damage, the scissors snipping and more black whisps spiraling to the floor and then removed one hand from his pocket to rap his knuckles softly on the door.

Lee’s head spun to face him and his eyes lit up. “Kakashi!”

Gai moved considerably slower, wiping the flat blades of the scissors on the back of the towel as he spoke. “Hello, Kakashi. I’m giving Lee here a new ‘do.”

“I can see that.” Kakashi leaned forward and held one hand up to stage whisper; “Lee, blink twice if you need help.”

The only answer he received was a round pair of eyes staring up at him in confusion.

“Alright, never mind.” He waved his hand. “It… Suits you, I suppose. Turning out well.”

As Kakashi continued on to the staffroom, he could hear the two of them blubbering behind him. There certainly were a lot of strange people here.

Inside the staffroom, leaning against one of the counters to the side, was Kurenai. Otherwise, the place appeared deserted.

She waved one red-fingernailed hand at him. “Oh, hi, Kakashi. You’re in time; I was just making tea. You want some?”

“That would be good. Thank you.”

He took a seat on the couch, stretching his legs out in front of him where it sat low, and she joined him on one of the armchairs a moment later, setting two steaming mugs on the small wooden table between them. A bead of condensation rolled down one as she pushed it towards him, and began to pool on the table, leaving wet marks trailing behind it when it moved.

“How have you been?”

Glancing up, Kakashi saw that she was watching him. Without thinking, he reached for his mug, wincing at the blistering heat but not withdrawing his hands.

“Well. I’ve been well. And you? How have things going with you and Asuma?”

Her face turned a pale shade of pink, and Kakashi fought to keep the smile from his lips. It was so obvious. Who did either of them think they were fooling?

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she looked down as she spoke, poking at the handle of her mug. “Speaking of Asuma, though… He’s sorry he wasn’t able to go with you the other day, either. For the anniversary.”

Ah. She still wanted to talk about that.

If it was down to Kakashi, he would have left that in the past. What did it really have to do with Kurenai, anyway? In the back of his mind, he knew that she was involved: Rin and Obito had been her friends, too. But she hadn’t been there.

He wondered if she was relieved about that, or whether she blamed him. If he had just acted faster, maybe he could have saved them, and they wouldn’t have to be having this conversation.

Kurenai said something.

“Sorry?”, Kakashi asked, turning to face her. He kept his hands wrapped around his mug, although the tea was blistering hot.

“I was just saying… You’ve seemed a little happier lately.” She gave him a timid smile. “I’m glad.”

“It’s probably the therapy.”

Thankfully, she just chuckled. “No, but really, I think working here has been doing you some good.” She lowered her voice as Ebisu entered the staffroom, deep in conversation with Iruka. “I know Rin and Obito would be happy to see you happy, too.”

Ebisu and Iruka approached and sat on the seats between them, but Kurenai’s gaze didn’t waver from Kakashi.

“Hmm.” He stared at his mug of tea. Eventually, she looked away.

*

Naruto walked to class alone that morning. Sakura, Sasuke and Lee had each decided not to wait for him before leaving- although whether they had made that decision together or separately he had no way of knowing- and no way was he waiting for Karin, who was still getting ready when he left. Along the way, he thought about their project, and Sakura’s weird claims.

The whole thing was strange, really. Just finding out about a relationship between two people he didn’t know. He still doubted that it was Hashirama, as Sakura seemed to believe: Hashirama was married, after all. Married men didn’t sneak off with other men like that. It wasn’t very nice to their wives. And Tsunade had always spoken of what a good person her grandfather was. Naruto simply couldn’t imagine it.

He was still mulling it over when he got to his locker, only to realize that he didn’t need anything from it that morning. His science textbooks were already in his bag: He had been trying to use them to do his homework. He shook his head at his own foolishness.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder and a strangled gasp made its way out of his mouth.

He whirled about, panicking momentarily, only to be faced with Kiba’s dumb, grinning face.

Naruto opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but the hand on his shoulder swiftly moved to cover his mouth.

“Mff!”, he protested, his eyes going wide. He was honestly just glad that Kiba wasn’t also covering his nose.

“Shh!” Kiba tilted his head. Following his gaze, Naruto stilled.

Gaara was back.

The slight boy stood with his head down, his bronze-red hair standing out against the row of faded aqua lockers behind him. He was peering into one of them. Naruto couldn’t see his face.

As they watched, Gaara closed his locker and began to walk away, thankfully in the opposite direction from where they were standing.

“Gaara”, Naruto said under his breath, once Kiba released his mouth. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was feeling: Anger, surely. But there was something else mingled in with it.

Kiba’s gaze flitted to him. “It must be his first day back.”

Naruto shook his head. “I can’t believe he’s just getting away with it. Poor Lee is going to have to wear a cast for weeks.”

“He’s not getting away with it.” At Kiba’s sharp tone, Naruto scrunched up his face.

Kiba swung his rucksack around in front of his body, tugging at the zipper until it opened. “Look here.”

With a flourish, he produced a small plastic container with clasps on each of the four sides sealing it closed. Inside was what seemed to be a mixture of brown and cream sludge of various textures.

Naruto wrinkled his nose even further. “What is that?”

“Rotten eggs and dog shit”, the other boy answered, as though that were a perfectly common thing for someone to have on them.

“Why would you carry that in your bag?!”

Kiba glanced up at him as he worked to do his rucksack back up. “Oh, we’re going to put it in Gaara’s locker. Come on.”

The two of them walked down the corridor, Kiba keeping the container tucked into the side of his jacket, until they reached the locker where Gaara had been stood. Naruto felt his heart beating erratically as he glanced up and down the corridor, and felt relieved to see that nobody was looking in their direction. Gaara had long vanished. The only other people there were two older boys chatting by the water fountain, and a girl in their year who seemed to be struggling with the combination on her locker.

Kiba began to fiddle with the lock, and Naruto hunkered in close beside him. They had long-since discovered the method to opening them when they had first started there a couple of years before, right around the time they had first started spending time together as almost-friends. So far, the only productive thing to come out of that knowledge had been the few occasions when they had used it to find and copy Shikamaru’s homework, right up until Shikamaru had inevitably worked out what they were doing and put a separate padlock on his door.

“Is anyone looking?”, Kiba asked.

Naruto glanced up and down. A few more people had entered in a small group, but they were speaking together and not really looking in their direction.

“No.”

With that assurance, Kiba creaked the door open.

The only thing inside was a couple of folders, and neither of them looked as though they had much inside. Naruto tried not to be disappointed.

Kiba produced the container, holding it just in front of his stomach so that his and Naruto’s bodied blocked the view from the majority of the hallway.

“Are you going to like… Scrape it out?”, Naruto asked uncertainly. “What if someone smells it?”

“Hmm. I can’t leave it in the container or he’ll just throw the container out.”

A sharp female voice asked; “What are you doing?”

Naruto and Kiba both jumped, and Kiba hastily tucked the container back under his jacket, although his face didn’t seem incredibly panicked. Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto saw why: It was Ino, standing slightly behind him with her arms crossed and a scowl etched on her face.

She peered closer. “What the hell was that thing Kiba was holding?”

“This is Gaara’s locker”, Kiba hissed in explanation. “We’re going to put this stuff in there.” He revealed the container once more.

Rather than looking disgusted, Ino merely looked bored. “Oh.” Her voice was flat, and Naruto tensed up, momentarily afraid that she was going to tell on them. “Well, hurry up.” She turned her back.

Naruto and Kiba exchanged a glance.

Naruto’s mind was racing. “Erm. Ino.” He cleared his throat. “Do you have any perfume we can borrow?”

She half-turned back to him, arching one thin blonde eyebrow. “Perfume?”

“To cover up the smell. Until we can go.”

Kiba jabbed him in the side with his elbow. “Dude, do you want to smell of Ino?”

“No, but if people smell this before we walk away they’ll all start looking and catch us!”

“Just do it quickly”, Ino muttered. “Throw it in there and we’ll go.”

Kiba leaned across Naruto, narrowing his eyes, to stare her down. “Why are you helping us?”

“I think what you’re doing is really childish, but the little creep deserves it.” Her face turned from an affected pout to what Naruto thought was genuine frustration. “I like Lee.”

Naruto turned back toward the locker, only to carry on turning at the sound of a raised voice approaching from behind Kiba.

“What are you doing to my brother’s locker?”

The girl with the sandy spiked hair was staring at them. Naruto hadn’t realized how tall she was, not until she was that close: She towered over him.

His blood ran cold. Somewhere to his back, he was aware that Ino had slipped away, abandoning him and Kiba to face her.

When neither of them said anything, the girl narrowed her eyes and demanded; “What is that?” She jabbed one pointer finger at the container, which was still clutched in Kiba’s hands, and then at the open locker. “Are you putting that in there?”

Shakily, Naruto nodded. In hindsight, that was probably the wrong move.

The exchange student eyed him for several long seconds. Naruto felt any confidence he'd had in what they were doing wilting away.

Then she said, seeming to struggle to find the words; “I am not going to get a teacher. Because I am not a snitch. But you have no right to do that to him. Get rid of it, quick, or I _will_ hurt you.”

At that, Naruto found his voice: “Your brother hurt my friend!”

“Naruto!”, a voice called, and he saw that Ino had reappeared with Shikamaru and Chouji on her heels. Chouji appeared concerned; Shikamaru irritated.

Ignoring his friends, Naruto continued to glare at the girl, who appeared to be searching for words.

“I mean it”, she said, her voice stern. “Take it away, now!”

Naruto became aware that, asides from Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji, several people in the corridor were now watching the scene unfold, and that Kiba had shuffled slightly behind him.

He opened his mouth again to protest, but at that moment his vision was obscured by Shikamaru stepping in front of him.

“We’ll get rid of it”, he said, his tone low and even. “We’re sorry. All we want is an apology from your brother after what he did. These guys are just mad because Lee hasn’t had one yet.”

The girl blinked at him, eyes wide, and then her face softened slightly in acknowledgment and she gave a small nod.

“Ah. You should know it was a mistake, though?”

Shikamaru echoed her movement, dipping his head slightly. “We understand. But it still happened, and he should still apologize.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “That may be a little tricky, with my brother. I will speak to him, but I do not know that he will listen.” She sighed, lowering her head slightly, and then looked up over Shikamaru’s shoulder at Naruto. “Is your friend okay?”

Up until that point, Naruto had been furious, only now the rage he felt dissipated and was replaced by surprise. What did she care about Lee?

“Er.” He swallowed, his hands dropping out of fists and fingers spreading wide. “Yeah, he is.”

“Now we’re going to get rid of this- whatever this is.” Shikamaru made a face. “We don’t want any more unnecessary trouble. School is bothersome enough as it is.”

The exchange student smiled a little at that. “Yes. And I will speak to Gaara. But I cannot guarantee anything.”

With a curt nod, she turned and left. Shikamaru watched for a moment with his hands in his pockets before he turned back to the others. The five of them- Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, Ino and Chouji- stared at each other silently.

Eventually, Kiba began; “Are we really-”

“Yes.” Shikamaru cut him off. “Get rid of it.”

Kiba grumbled something under his breath.

An idea occurred to Naruto.

“Here.” He turned to Kiba. “I’ll put it under Karin’s bed tonight.”

He held his rucksack out, and Kiba shot him an incredulous look before slipping the box inside. Once Naruto had done up the zipper, he realized that Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru were already walking away to class and, fed up of being left behind, he dashed to catch up.

*

Tap, tap, tap.

Attempting to match his tapping to the movement of the second hand on the clock at the front of the class was frustrating for numerous reasons, one being that Lee found it hard to stay in time without speeding up, and another being that no matter how hard he tried, nothing seemed to make the time pass quicker. He consoled himself with the fact that it was only a couple of minutes until break.

Leaning forward in his seat, he glanced around to the side, where Neji usually sat.

His chair sat vacant.

There had been no word from him this time as to why he was not there, despite Tenten messaging him to ask whether he was alright. It was making Lee feel sick with worry.

It was supposed to have been a good day, as well: Lee had been looking forward to showing his friends his cool new haircut.

The bell finally, finally, rang, and the teacher dismissed them so they gathered up their things. Lee bowed to the teaching assistant who had been helping him write earlier on in the class on his way out and then fell into step beside Tenten in the corridor. Without speaking a word, she headed straight along the hall and through one of the sloppily painted doors. Lee walked so close by her that he could practically feel the anxiety radiating from her.

“What do we have next?”, she asked, tilting her head to stare at Lee.

“History.”

She groaned.

Lee found himself freezing just outside of the school building when he spotted a pair of familiar pale eyes: Only, they were in Hinata’s face rather than Neji’s.

He sprinted over to her, wincing slightly at the way his cast bounced against his chest, making his way through the crowds gathered in the yard. Several of them turned to watch him as he went.

“Hinata! Hinata, hi!”

Vaguely, he could hear Tenten calling to him to slow down and chasing after him, but he ignored her, electing instead to bounce toward the younger girl.

Hinata was standing stock still. She looked up at Lee from under the hood of the large black jacket she was wearing, which she had tugged up over her head. He could just see the ends of her bangs poking out from underneath the rim.

“Lee?”, she asked, a faint murmur. She appeared confused.

“Ah. Yes, it is me. I just got a new haircut, see.” Lee grinned, indicating to his head. When Hinata didn’t smile, he continued; “Where is Neji today? Is he alright?” As he spoke, Tenten arrived beside them, panting slightly.

Hunkering further down into her jacket, Hinata shrugged. “He’s sick.” Her gaze darted from one side to another, to the groups of students that were still staring at them.

“Again?” Tenten demanded.

“He’s been sick a lot lately”, commented Lee. “Does he have a virus?”

“No. He’s just sick.”

Tenten pursed her lips and frowned at Hinata, and Hinata looked down at the ground.

Lee said; “I am beginning to grow very worried about him.”

“Me, too. Lee, I think we need to talk to him.” Tenten tilted her head. “Can we visit, maybe?”

“I can ask Gai to take us at the weekend.” The thought cheered him up. “We can go shopping before and bring him a gift! Something he will like!”

“That’s a good idea. If we cheer him up he might come back.”

Lee noticed then how shiny Hinata’s eyes looked, still trained on the ground in front of them. When she glanced up and saw Lee looking at her, she tugged her hood further over her face and wiped one sleeve across her eyes. It must be really serious, he worried, for her to be so concerned as well.

Someone was moving toward them over Tenten’s shoulder.

The funny exchange student. Gaara’s older brother. Kankurou, as they now knew him.

Lee greeted him enthusiastically; “Kankurou, hi.”

Turning, Tenten started; “Hey-”

“What the hell?”, he barked, and Lee noticed with apprehension the way that his face was drawn down in a scowl. As if he and Tenten needed any further conflict today.

“What?”, Tenten demanded.

Kankurou stopped in front of them, his hands tucked into the pockets of his black hoodie. “I thought we were sort of alright now?”

“We are”, Lee insisted.

“So why would you get your friends to do something like that to my brother?”, he spat.

Tenten took a step forward. “Kankurou, we don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His dark eyes flickered with uncertainty as he looked between them.

“What happened?”, asked Lee. “Whatever it is, I assure you we had nothing to do with it.”

The other boy seemed to deliberate for several seconds over whether to trust them; ultimately, he hunched over and shuffled forward as though moving into their small huddle. “That little blond brat and the brown-haired boy that never stops yapping… They were trying to put something in Gaara’s locker. I don’t know what, but Temari said it didn’t look good.”

Lee and Tenten exchanged a glance.

“Naruto”, Tenten grit out between her teeth.

“I’ll speak to Naruto.” Lee turned to Kankurou to explain. “I live with him.”

The exchange student raised his eyebrows. “Yeah? Are you brothers or something?”

“It’s a foster home.”

“Oh.” All of the fight had left Kankurou’s voice, and he rubbed at the back of his head. “Well, sorry I accused you.”

“It’s fine.” Tenten shrugged. “It feels like everything is going crazy right now.”

“Yeah. Hey, where’s your friend? The guy with long hair?”

Lee found himself exchanging yet another glance with Tenten.

“He’s sick”, she replied quietly.

Kankurou nodded. “Who’s this?”

Lee had forgotten that Hinata was still there. She stood slightly behind and between Lee and Tenten. When the three older students each turned to look at her, she blinked up at them, looking to Lee alarmingly like a rabbit caught between headlights.

“This is his cousin”, Lee explained.

“Huh.” Kankurou peered closer. “Yeah, I thought so. You guys kind of look alike.”

Her fingers shaking clumsily, Hinata drew her hood tighter around her face before turning and walking away. Most of the other crowds had stopped staring at them now, and so she ended up having to push her way through some of them to get back inside the building.

Kankurou watched her go with his eyebrows raised. “Something I said?”

Lee swallowed. “I think she’s just worried about Neji. I believe he is quite ill.”

“Oh, that sucks, I’m sorry. Hope he’s alright.” Even Lee could tell that the silence following those words was somewhat awkward. “Do you guys have geography now?”

Tenten shook her head. “No, history.”

“Damn.” Sighing, Kankurou looked off into the distance. “I was going to ask if you know where my room is.”

“Well, I’m sure we’ll know where it is.” As Tenten spoke, Kankurou fished a planner out from somewhere- Lee wasn’t entirely sure where; it almost seemed to appear from within his hoodie, although that would be ridiculous- and held it out for her to check. “Oh, okay. We’ll show you. Come on, Lee.”

Lee and Tenten saluted each other and then, at the exact same moment, wheeled about toward the school building and started marching. Over his shoulder, he could see Kankurou watching them, his planner still held in one outstretched hand, standing among the crowds with a bemused look on his face. After a moment, he shook his head and began to follow them.

*

Kiba let out a long, frustrated sigh. His stepdad could never show up on time. The straps of his bag were beginning to dig into his shoulder: At least Naruto had offered to take the box of gross stuff. He wouldn’t want to carry it around all day.

There was a chill in the air, and he hoped that someone would be along to collect him quickly. He didn’t want to have to walk, especially not if it was going to rain.

When someone touched his arm, Kiba jolted, his eyes flying wide open.

He relaxed when he saw that it was Hinata, and gave a short burst of laughter that rattled in his chest. He was so sure everyone else had left already; it had been a while since the school day ended. “Man, you’re so quiet sometimes it’s scary.”

Hinata didn’t smile, simply stared earnestly up at him.

Well, she must have come over for a reason. “What’s up?”

“Kiba, can I- can I come to yours?” Her voice sounded thin and reedy, yet level. “Or Shino’s? I really want to work on our project some more.”

With a glance down, he saw that her fingers were shaking. It was cold, but not that cold. She tucked them away in her sleeve.

When he looked back up, she was still staring at him. It was probably the longest that their eyes had met without her looking away in the time he had known her. It was a surprise: Kiba wasn’t sure what exactly had prompted her boldness today, but he welcomed it.

Still. He scuffed at the grass with the toe of one shoe. “I was going to go back to mine and then go hang out at the home with Naruto.”

“With Naruto?” Hinata paused, a faraway look taking over her gaze. “Can I come?”

Kiba debated internally. The workers there were normally cool with a couple of people coming over: When Kiba visited previously he had been with Chouji or Shikamaru often. He had already invited Shino, earlier, only he had said he had to feed his ants. It was no different than inviting Shino, he figured. And it didn’t look like his stepfather was going to show up anytime soon. It wouldn’t surprise Kiba if he really had forgotten again. He could just text his mom and let her know where he was on the way, probably.

“Sure”, he caved in and was rewarded with a small smile on Hinata’s face.

On the way to Naruto’s, Kiba found himself talking on and on, about Akamaru and their family’s dogs and how his mom’s dog was expecting puppies soon, although his stepdad would probably sell them quickly. Hinata listened without commenting too often: She was a good listener, he thought.

Upon arrival, Kiba headed straight toward Naruto’s room. The lady at the desk, the usual one with the chin-length brown hair and the comfy-looking gray cardigan, smiled at him without saying anything. She knew him well enough by now. She threw Hinata a curious glance but, probably seeing that she was with Kiba, didn’t question it.

Naruto was lounging on his bed, staring at a textbook, when they entered. As soon as he saw them, he threw his textbook to one side.

“Hi. Oh, Hinata, nice to see you here!”

Hinata squeaked, and Kiba shook his head. So much for her earlier bravery.

As usual, Sasuke, who was seated on his own bed, didn’t acknowledge them.

“Let’s go to the TV room”, Naruto decided, after shooting an anxious glance at his roommate and receiving no acknowledgment in return. “Karin is off somewhere so she shouldn’t be there.”

Sasuke didn’t come with them, not that Kiba was really expecting him to. He didn’t care either way.

The three of them sat down in the lounge. It was cramped with furniture, all different chairs and beanbags, and an ancient couch, but strangely lacking in people. It was normally busy when Kiba was there. The only other person today was a small kid sitting in the corner, drawing happily in a notebook and ignoring them.

Kiba elected to take the middle seat, between Naruto and Hinata. Hinata didn’t know Naruto that well, after all: He didn’t want to make her feel awkward by forcing her to sit next to him.

Once they were seated Naruto hit a button on the remote, and a movie began to play on the screen in front of them. Some kind of drama where the main characters all had perfect families and a series of misunderstandings led to ridiculous levels of tension.

After only a few minutes, Kiba was fed up with it. “This is boring. Turn it over.”

Naruto snorted at him. “No. Go home if you wanna put something on.”

Kiba huffed and crossed his arms. Glancing about, his gaze settled on Hinata, to his left. “Hinata. Hey. Hinata.” She jumped and blinked up at him. “Do you want to do the project now?” He didn’t really want to; was suggesting it more to annoy Naruto by making it seem as though they were already leaving. But if Hinata said yes, then he supposed he wouldn’t mind going with her. They really did need to make a proper start, after all.

“Project?”, she repeated, as though she had only now become aware that he was speaking to her.

“The history project?”, he prompted. Surely, she hadn’t already forgotten the reason she had joined him? She must have been tired.

“Oh. Um.” Hinata glanced down at her feet before turning a small smile on Kiba, one so uncharacteristically open that a bolt of unease struck him. “Can we just hang out instead, maybe? Is that okay?”

For the first time that evening, Kiba noticed the way her fingernails were picking at the seams of her clothes, the way each breath she took seemed to rattle with the effort.

Hesitantly, he asked; “Hinata, are you okay?”

Her large eyes didn’t look away. An eerie calmness seemed to have settled over them.

“I’m okay”, she said.

Kiba watched her in the dark for a moment longer before turning to kick at Naruto. Hinata was acting weird, weirder than usual. It could have just been exhaustion, but if she was still acting strangely in the morning he would have to say something to her, or maybe Shino or Naruto, to try to figure out what to do.

Maybe it was just a side of her weirdness that he hadn’t seen yet, though. That was always a possibility. Although he had spent a lot more time with Hinata and Shino in school, they had only really hung out outside of school hours a few times. He had learned enough about them to know how odd they both were, and enough about himself to know that he didn’t actually mind that. In fact, he sort of liked it. It could be, therefore, that this was just how Hinata got when she was tired.

So Kiba instead focused on trying to kick Naruto in the face.

*

Sasuke was relieved when Kiba and Hinata finally left.

Hinata was okay, mostly. Although her whimpering could get annoying. Sasuke figured there was something going on at home, possibly that she was fighting with Neji, but he didn’t care enough to really look into it.

Kiba, though, was loud and rude, and he fought with Naruto so much that Sasuke had to wonder what they each stood to gain by calling each other a friend. Wouldn’t it be better for them if they just avoided each other rather than starting foolish arguments all of the time?  
  


He jumped at the dry tone to Kakashi’s voice when the man spoke. Sakura had been droning on for so long he had zoned out.

“Really? That’s all you found out?”

Sakura floundered to come up with a response, her face going almost as pink as her hair. “Well, what did you find out? Didn’t you say you were going to the library?” She stared up at Kakashi from where she stood just in front of him. Sasuke, just next to where she was, sat on his bed, while Nauro reclined on his own, lazily leafing through the last few letters that they had yet to translate.

“Admittedly, I didn’t find much. Just some old building plans and certificates. That sort of thing.” He looked away and then, when Sakura sighed in disappointment, back to her. “They do match up with the timeline for this being Hashirama. Actually, he didn’t marry his wife- Mito- until 1952, meaning these letters were written a few years before.”

Naruto said; “Huh.”

Almost immediately Sasuke could tell he wasn’t referring to what Kakashi had said, largely from the crease between his eyebrows as he scrutinized the page in his hands.

“What is it?”, he asked.

“This letter.”

Sakura said; “Yeah, what about it?”

Naruto held it out. “Read the first line.”

Sasuke made no effort to move, so Sakura marched over to Naruto’s bed and snatched the letter away from him.

“‘I am thinking of you constantly, so often alone in your big house in the center of town’”, she read, and then glanced up at Naruto with her brow furrowed. “What?”

Naruto scoffed. “So, this place is on the edge of town, not the center! Whoever they were writing to can’t have lived here.”

Deflating a little, Sakura murmured; “Maybe someone did bring them here after they had been written.”

She and Naruto stared at each other for a moment, a mixture of emotions flitting across their faces. Sasuke watched them both.

“In that case, you kids might need to find a new history project.” Having spoken, Kakashi turned on his heels and headed toward the door.

“Hey!”, Sakura protested. “Where are you going?”

“To get a coffee. Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

“Can I have one?”, Naruto piped up. He was still lying on his back with one arm tucked behind his head.

Kakashi stared at Naruto for a moment, as though waiting for Naruto to say that he was just kidding. When no sign of that came, he said; “No”, and left the room.

The three of them continued with what they had been doing without speaking. Sakura flopped down onto the end of Naruto’s bed, putting her elbows on her knees and allowing her head to hang down, pink strands framing her face. Sasuke considered breaking the silence, only Naruto beat him to it.

“Maybe, like we said before, they just wrote the letters here but didn’t send them?”, he suggested.

"But they're written as though in response to something." Sakura raised her head to stare across the room. Her eyes were piercing. “Hey, Sasuke, your parents were part of the town council, right?”

Sasuke froze. He had forgotten that he was a part of the conversation, that they were involving him in all of this. He hunched his shoulders up by his ears. “Yes. Why?”

“From what I’ve seen, there are a lot of people here with some old-fashioned views. Do you know of any old families here?” Her voice still sounded miserable. Sasuke wondered what she was getting at.

“Not really. My parents didn’t discuss work at home much.” That was a lie: They talked about it a lot, especially his father. But he couldn’t remember much now: He could barely remember any of their conversations. Over the past few months, it had all turned to white noise.

“Well, there’s the Hyuuga family”, Sakura began uncertainly. “And Tsunade’s family, of course. Hm, I might have to do some digging.” She paused. “Hey, you know what’s funny?”

“What?” The bad mood appeared to have affected Naruto as well; he sounded disinterested.

“I feel like I can read this now without even having to translate it, we’ve been working on so many of these.”

Naruto perked up, sitting upright in his bed. “Try it!”

Sasuke propped himself up one elbow to watch as Sakura squinted at one of the pages she had fished from the box.

“You can’t!”, Naruto taunted.

“Shut up, Naruto! I’m just reading the beginning again!” She licked her lips. “Okay, so I’m not sure if I’m reading it or if I’m just sounding out the letters.” She stopped again before beginning to slowly go through it. It was mildly impressive, Sasuke had to admit. “‘Even with all that has happened between us, I wonder if you think of me also, of me up here in my room, dreaming of our last encounter. The night was still, then, as though the world held its breath.’” As she was reading, Kakashi came back in with a black mug clutched in one hand. Nearly silently, he walked across the room and set the drink down next to Sasuke’s bed. “‘And as the moonlight rippled over your fair skin, I began to mo-’”

As stealthily as he had entered, Kakashi made it across to Sakura’s side and snatched the letter from her hands, faster than Sasuke had ever seen him move before. He stared at the page for a moment, his eyes wide.

The three of them stared up at him.

“I think I’m going to keep this one”, Kakashi announced. “It looks like it is a tale to rival even Jiraiya’s fine prose. Not something to be read by you three.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”, asked Naruto.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Sakura cringed.

“We’re pretty much adults, Kakashi”, Sasuke protested. Not that he really wanted to read what was written there, but it was annoying that Kakashi didn’t seem to think he could be mature about it.

“Yeah, we’re grown up enough to read that stuff”, said Sakura.

But Kakashi was shaking his head firmly. “No. I say that this is not for the innocent ears of-” He paused suddenly, sniffing. “What is that smell?”

Almost as soon as the words left his lips, Sakura blanched, leaning forward and covering her mouth with one hand as she gagged. Sasuke couldn’t smell anything- not yet, anyway- but he got to his feet and moved toward the open doorway, just in case.

As Sasuke watched, Naruto’s mouth dropped open and he leaped to his feet, almost kicking Sakura in his struggle to do so. “The eggs! I forgot!”

He dove under his bed, reaching for his rucksack, and when he opened it up the foul stench hit Sasuke too.

Sasuke took a step out into the corridor, listening to the sounds of Sakura screeching at Naruto to get out. He really hoped they weren't going to have to clean the entire room.

Kakashi muttered; “Why do you-”

He stopped and the sound of thundering footsteps came, and Sasuke only just dodged out of the way in time as Naruto dashed past him and away down the corridor, his open bag held aloft in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can y'all tell how badly I just want to hug Hinata and Neji?


	10. Chapter 10

Somebody was standing right behind Naruto’s left shoulder.

He pretended that he didn’t see them, peering into his locker. When whoever it was tried to make him jump, he would be prepared and act all cool about it. Naruto, get scared? Never.

Only, the person didn’t approach him. Didn’t touch him, didn’t speak. They simply stood there, just at the edge of his peripheral vision.

Haltingly, he sneaked a glance behind him.

And almost leaped out of his skin when he saw who it was.

Gaara was standing there, arms hanging limply to his sides, his face pale. It was one of the only times Naruto had seen him without the other exchange students there.

Struggling to get his heart rate under control, Naruto bit out; “Oh, great. What do you want?”

To punctuate his words, he slammed his locker door. Which sounded really cool, only it didn’t quite work as it rebounded and swung open once more.

Cursing under his breath, Naruto half-turned and closed it properly, making sure to secure the lock.

“My sister says you want a sorry”, Gaara said quietly.

“You know, normally when people apologize, they actually say ‘I’m sorry.’” Swinging back around, Naruto glared at him. He didn’t flinch, merely stared back up at Naruto.

The silence between them dragged on. Naruto tapped his foot.

“Well? Get on with it.”

“I did come here to sorry. But you are maybe not worth it.”

“Huh?”

Gaara’s fists clenched, the same contorted snarl taking over his face that Naruto remembered from the one time in the cafeteria.

“Hey, don’t get like that, speak to me!”, he cried. He had to at least admit that Gaara had been making a bit of effort in approaching him. Even if he was being rude again now. He figured the least he could do was try to calm it down before a fight started: A fight that Naruto would, of course, inevitably win.

Gaara didn’t speak. His face remained twisted.

Naruto sighed. “I didn’t mean to upset you or anything. And I know you didn’t mean to hurt Lee. But he’s my friend and you did hurt him so apologize already.”

Again, there was no response.

“What is wrong with you?”, he snapped, irritated by the silence.

So quietly that he could barely hear, Gaara whispered; “I am sorry.”

Well, that was something. “Okay.”

Peering closer, he saw that Gaara had started to shake. His arms trembled in the sleeves of his dark coat. He said; “You care very much about that strange boy.”

“Well, yeah, he’s my friend.” Glancing back up, he noticed the look on Gaara’s face had changed. It had turned almost anguished, his mouth opened slightly. “Are you okay?”

Gaara shook his head, squeezing his eyes closed. “No.”

“Oh.” Naruto wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that.

“I hate it here.”

Naruto looked up and down the corridor. “School? Yeah, me too.”

Gaara shook his head once more, a brutal snap from the left to the right and back. “In Japan.”

Opening his mouth, Naruto intended to reply that Gaara should just go home them, except something made him stop: That wasn’t very polite, was what Iruka would say if he were there.

So instead, he took a breath and asked; “How come?”

“Everything is hard.” Gaara lowered his head a little, misty green eyes vanishing from view. “Japanese.”

“You’re doing okay so far”, he pointed out.

Gaara stared at the ground for a little while, and Naruto had to bite his tongue not to prompt him. Patience seemed to be the key to communicating with Gaara, it was turning out: Not something he had much experience in, but he could do it if he really tried.

“I feel alone”, said Gaara. He hadn’t looked up yet.

“Look, if you keep causing trouble like that you’re going to feel even more alone. People won’t like you.” He thought. “Trust me, I’ve been there.”

“You have?”

It felt weird to talk about, especially to someone he didn’t know very well. “I was like that, I guess. You know, I used to snap at people. But it was just because they were mean to me first.”

“At home it is… Easy. It is only me and my brother and sister and father. But here there are…” Gaara said the next two words in English, and luckily Naruto knew them from class and watching movies with subtitles. “More people.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess it must be a bit of a culture shock for you.” He couldn’t imagine, the amount of double-guessing Gaara was having to do. With gestures and the culture, and the languages he had to juggle. Hadn’t Shikamaru said at one point that they spoke French and Arabic? And then English and Japanese… Naruto could barely manage one of those. He had never been anywhere outside of Japan, had barely even left their province, so the thought of going halfway around the world to another country was incredibly daunting. Exciting, yet daunting.

More people were flooding into the hall now, and Gaara flinched as someone brushed by him.

“Want to sit outside and talk?”, he asked. Gaara stared at him, and he jerked his head slightly. “Outside?”

“Okay.”

They made their way down the hall together and out to where the benches were. Gaara drew his knees up to his chest when they sat down and stared out with his strange green eyes. His face was quite different, Naruto thought, his and his siblings: Strong features.

Gaara’s gaze flitted toward Naruto, and Naruto jumped, realizing he’d been staring.

“I know I am a freak”, Gaara said. “They all tell me.”

“Is that why you get so angry?”, Naruto asked.

“A little bit. But I am angry also at home.” He frowned. “Father makes me angry. And Temari and Kankuro.”

“You don’t need to get violent, though.” When Gaara stared at him, Naruto mimed punching. “Don’t need it.”

“ _Yes_ ”, Gaara replied adamantly, and Naruto recognized that his affirmative was really an argument.

He shook his head. “ _No_.”

“How else?”

“Talk.” Naruto gestured between the two of them. Gaara followed the movements of his hands with his eyes. “Like this. You make friends that way.”

Gaara tilted his head consideringly. “You sound like my sister and brother. Are you then my friend?”

“I don’t know.” He eyed Gaara suspiciously, but his face was open and earnest.

Slowly, he said; “You can make the anger go away.”

“No”, Naruto said firmly. “You can.” He swallowed: Iruka would definitely have been proud of him for saying that. “Like I said, I was the same. Look, I live in a home and I was alone a lot when I was young and it fucking sucked. I was so mean to everyone because that was all I was, the lonely home kid. But then I realised I wouldn’t get anywhere being like that. It’s tough, but you need to stop.”

Looking a little bewildered, Gaara murmured; “Not alone though.”

“No. Not alone.” Iruka was all Naruto could seem to think of, for some reason. Iruka, who had been the first one to speak to him like a person and not some kind of nuisance or pest who got under everyone’s feet- at the home- or a complete freak- at school. “Okay.” He sighed. “I’ll be your friend.”

Gaara settled his head on his knees. A tiny smile was tugging at his lips, although Naruto thought that perhaps he was only imagining it.

What now? Naruto wasn’t exactly going to ask Gaara to hang out or if he wanted to come over just yet, and he hoped Gaara wasn’t expecting that. But maybe they could talk and get to know each other a bit more. Once Gaara had spoken to the rest of his friends, of course. Shikamaru would probably be happy about the turn of events: He had seemed interested in the exchange students. Or, at least, he talked about them, which was more than he spoke about the majority of the school. Kiba and some of the others, though…

The sound of the bell going off cleared Naruto’s mind, and the only thought that remained, stepping out from the haze of potential situations, was that his next class was science, on the other side of the school entirely.

Springing to his feet, he waved one hand at a startled Gaara.

Looking over his shoulder as he pushed through the suddenly converging crowds wasn’t a good idea, but if anybody was a pro at it, it was Naruto.

Just before the sight of Gaara sat on the bench could be swallowed up entirely by a sea of bodies, he called back; “We’re cool now! But you need to apologize to Lee still!”

Perhaps Gaara hadn’t understood what he just said, with the noise between them. However, from the last glimpse Naruto caught of his eyes past their classmates, he had feeling somehow that Gaara got what he meant.

*

Tenten had half-hoped that things would go back to normal once Neji returned to school.

Unfortunately, things could never be that simple.

The squeaking of shoes against the linoleum of the corridor sounded especially loud in the otherwise silent atmosphere hanging over their group. As usual, the three of them were stood in the hallway by the water fountain.

If anything, Tenten would have said that Neji seemed slightly tired, yet otherwise no different than usual. She snuck glances at him from the corner of her eye, searching for something that would mark him as different, as changed, for something that would betray the reason for his absence and sudden withdrawal from their lives. Only there was nothing.

They had spent the first period bombarding him with questions, none of which had been answered and the majority rejected, the remaining few deflected and shrugged away with a sweep of his thin shoulders. He had claimed a headache, although Tenten strongly suspected that was an excuse not to speak to them.

Eventually, they had run out of questions to ask. Tenten had never known a time when not even Lee knew what to say.

Only, she dimly became aware, he was speaking again now.

“Neji. Neji. Neji.”

“Huh?” Neji’s distant eyes grew less cloudy as he snapped back to reality, and Tenten concurrently realised she had also zoned out.

Lee shook his head. His new haircut really did suit him, in a bizarre way, framing his wide-eyed, earnest face. “Ne, I was just saying that you’ve missed a lot of school lately.”

Neji’s face seemed to pinch in on itself. “Yes.”

The lecture continued. “I know you’ve been sick, but you need to do your best to power through or you’ll fall behind, and Tenten and I will overtake you! It’s not good to miss so much school.”

“I know that, okay?”

Neji’s face was sharp, focused, just a hint of teeth showing over his lip, and Lee flinched. Tenten felt her stomach flip and she raised a hand instinctively, unsure herself of what she was aiming to do.

His glare dropped suddenly, gaze landing on something over Lee’s shoulder, and Tenten pivoted to find what had caught his attention away from them.

Immediately her heart sank: Kankuro was walking past, his siblings on either side of him. Neji’s eyes had latched onto Gaara. He walked slightly apart from the other two. Why did they always have to show up at the worst possible moments?

Out of nowhere, there came a loud thumping noise and Tenten felt a breeze whip past her. Glancing to her right, she could see Neji’s fist retracting from the hollow now etched in his locker.

The whole corridor was staring at them. Tenten tried not to hide her face.

“Ne!”, Lee gasped.

Neji’s glare pinwheeled, from Lee to his locker and then back to Gaara, who was now stopped and staring, an almost nervous look on his face. Tenten locked eyes with Kankuro briefly, who appeared confused.

Abruptly she became aware that Neji’s whole body was tensed, as though he were about to take off running. He was still facing Gaara.

“Neji, what the fuck?”, she breathed, reaching out once more. “Don’t go after them.”

A single look was spared in her direction, and then Neji took off, sprinting at top speed. Fortunately, he ran in the opposite direction, down the hallway, past a frazzled-looking group of younger girls, and straight out of the double doors at the end, his long hair and baggy clothing waving behind him.

Tenten braced herself to follow him, but paused when she heard the tell-tale sign of a sob.

Lee was still stood right by Neji’s locker, his good fist clenched at his sides and his head down.

“Lee?”

Slowly, he raised his head, and his face was a picture of despair.

“Something’s really wrong with Neji, right?”, he whispered. “I didn’t want to say, but there is, isn’t there?”

There was. Tenten knew it. There was something very, very wrong happening, and she wanted with all of her heart to put a stop to it. But who was she? Who were they? Teenagers who probably wouldn’t be able to make a difference.

Only Lee was standing in front of her, his body still shaking with sobs, and so Tenten moved forward to carefully wrap her arms around him. When he moved his to hug her back with his sole healthy arm, it felt almost like a cage.

Why did she have to be the emotional support all of the time? As much as she loved Neji and Lee, it could really get draining. She was used to it at home, with her younger siblings, but when she felt so close to falling apart herself, all she wanted was for her friends to listen to and support her. Only now she had to hold it together for Lee and Neji.

“Oh, Lee”, she whispered, still acutely aware that people were staring. “Please stop crying. I- I need the bathroom.” If they could just get there, maybe they could talk.

Almost immediately, Lee seemed to calm down, wiping his eyes with his free sleeve. He allowed Tenten to lead him toward the bathroom, only he stopped at the door and stepped to one side to slump against the wall.

“You can come in with me?”, she suggested, pausing with one hand on the cool wood.

Lee crossed his arm over his chest, almost looping it above his cast. “No. That’s the girl’s bathroom.”

Tenten gave him a weak smile. “Okay.”

It probably worked out better that he didn’t come. The bathroom was empty. It gave Tenten the time she needed to splash her face with cold water, and then pat her cheeks with paper towels until the redness of her face and the sting in her eyes had retreated.

Holding onto one of the porcelain basins, she took a deep breath in and tipped her head back.

What were they going to do? How could they help Neji when they couldn’t even speak to him about what was going on? She didn’t want to go to an adult with vague concerns: Vague concerns got you nowhere. And she wasn’t even sure what it was that was causing these concerns.

“Tenten? The bell’s about to go”, Lee’s muffled voice called from outside.

“Just coming!”, she called back, taking a second to put a smile onto her face before she rushed to join her friend.

*

The restaurant was long, low-lit and chiming with the noises of plates clinking and pans knocking together.

It was a very familiar sound for Chouji: A comforting one. After all, he, Ino and Shikamaru had virtually grown up in their families’ restaurant, darting about their parents’ and various family members feet as they served dinner.

Usually, though, they were contained within ‘their’ booth, by the door and to the right, in the window. Their parents had eventually gotten fed up with their roaming and confined them there, and although they were now considered old enough to occasionally help out with various duties, the three of them still mostly gravitated toward their usual spot. If customers were there, they would even sometimes get upset: Usually Ino, in all honesty. Not that Chouji would ever point that out.

Today, they had an extra member of their little group: Ino had invited Sakura around for dinner. Although it was only Shikamaru's and Chouji’s dads working the kitchen that night, it was still essentially home to Ino as well.

Luckily their booth was free. With a nod to Shikamaru’s cousin, manning the door, they had squeezed their way in, Chouji and Shikamaru on one side and the girls on the other. At some point in the evening, Chouji had squeezed in beside In to join them in watching the drama that they had turned into on Ino’s tablet: Some melodramatic show that Sakura said Naruto had mentioned before. Shikamaru, opposite them, was sprawled half-across the cool surface of the marbled table, having a nap.

“You know”, Chouji said thoughtfully, at a lull in the story where the heroine was staring out of a window and not doing much else, “we should probably start our history project soon.” He glanced about at his friends, carefully watching for their reactions.

“Nah, later”, Shikamaru yawned, and Chouji jolted, muttering an apology to Ino when she scowled at his jostling her. He’d thought Shikamaru had fallen asleep already.

Ino stared down at Shikamaru with one eyebrow raised. “Busy daydreaming about the exchange student, Shikamaru?”

Sakura’s mouth dropped open. “Gaara?”

Ino threw her a scathing look. “You’ve been reading too many of those letters. No, the sister, you idiot. I saw the two of you smiling at each other in the hall the other day.”

“Just because I was smiling at her doesn’t mean anything.” Shikamaru still did not open his eyes, and his facial expression did not change, as smooth as if he were sleeping. He was a good bluffer, Chouji thought. Asides from himself and Ino, not many other people would be able to spot the small twitch of the head that Shikamaru had given.

It was obvious that there was some kind of attraction there. Chouji had never seen Shikamaru have a crush on anyone before, so he couldn’t say for certain that it was one, but the way Shikamaru had spoken of the girl- even calling her smart, a rare compliment from him- had Chouji convinced.

“She’s out of your league anyway”, Ino snorted, and Chouji was half-jostled out of the way as Shikamaru kicked her under the table.

Ignoring the beginnings of their bickering, Chouji whined; “Is the food ready yet?”

Shikamaru sat up straight, eyeing him. “Are you hungry already?”

“He’s always hungry”, muttered Ino.

“I can’t help it. The food smells so good.” It did. It really, truly did. The fusion of Eastern European and Japanese foods was somewhat unusual, but it was something Chouji very much enjoyed. A lot of pasta was involved, although in different forms: Dumplings and noodles. A lot of fish, too. He could smell that now: Something smoked, with just a hint of garlic.

“It does”, Sakura murmured in agreement.

“Do you think fish feel things the way people do?”, Chouji hummed.

Sakura blinked at him, eyes wide. “What?”

Shikamaru snorted. “No, that’s stupid.”

“Maybe they still feel stuff, but just differently than humans”, mused Sakura. “They probably can’t remember a lot.”

Chouji shrugged. “I mean, they do have the memory of a fish.”

“Was that meant to be a joke?”, demanded Ino.

“Yeah.”

“It sucked.”

“I thought it went swimmingly.”

He winced as she slapped at his arm.

“Can’t believe I happened to be born at the same time as you”, she muttered.

Shikamaru was staring over the top of the booth. “Don’t you think it’s a weird coincidence our parents had us three in the same year, though?”

“Maybe it was meant to be. A meaningful coincidence”, Chouji suggested. It was a nice thought: One that had privately warmed his chest when he had thought it before. “They had that bond.”

“See, I would think that if we weren’t all only children.”

Ino huffed a breath of air. “It is a bit creepy, I guess. Maybe they performed some kind of satanic ritual.”

Shikamaru stared at her. “What a shame. They went through all that effort and ended up having you.”

Sakura snickered at Ino’s offended gasp and offered her hand for a high five. Shikamaru paused for a moment before relenting and tapping their palms together.

“You know, you’re right”, Chouji said slowly, and the other three turned to look at him. “It is a little fishy.”

A few seconds later, he was screaming in protest as Ino shoved him out of the booth and onto the floor.

*

There was something so incredibly satisfying about reading by lamplight. Sakura could almost imagine that she was a servant to a lady, crouching in her room after dark, reading the hastily scribbled musings of a lover taken away by war, by family duty.

The image would have been perfect, if not for Naruto’s and Sasuke’s breathing on either side of her.

“There are only five letters left!”, Naruto hissed, right in her ear, making her jump as she copied out the final sentence of the letter she had been staring at. “We have to read the last ones together.”

Starting, Sakura saw that Naruto was, for once, correct. There were only five left. She hadn’t realized. She picked them up and leafed through them. The last three all seemed so much shorter than the others, a few lines only. What did that mean?

Shuffling on her knees, she looked to Sasuke. His pale face was half-illuminated by the golden glow of the spiral lamp they had moved from Naruto’s nightstand. He gave no indication to her one way or the other as to what he wanted, shrugging when he met her questioning gaze.

“Should I read it?”, she asked.

“Yes!”, Naruto burst out, and Sakura elbowed him. It was late: She wasn’t even supposed to be in there. It had just so happened that she had slipped out to get a drink and, when returning, her feet had taken her past her own room and along the eery corridors to the boys’ room. She hadn’t been tired, anyway.

The three of them settled back in a more comfortable position as Sakura prepared to read. It was strange how easily now the words unspooled and presented themselves to her on the page.

She drew her knees up to her chest to rest the letter above them, her spine pressing against Naruto’s bedframe as she leaned her back on it.

The boys settle in on either side of her, on the floor with their knees drawn up to their chests and their backs pressed against the bedframe.

Keeping her voice low and speaking slowly, she read: “‘I told my brother. I know the expression that you will be making right now, but I would trust my brother with my own life. He will not tell, I assure you. He was not happy about the situation, of course. He says that you are merely using me, trying to get me out of the way due to our fathers’ rivalry. He does not trust you or your family.’”

She paused to swallow.

“Huh”, said Sasuke, little more than a sharp exhale in the dark.

Her eyes flitted up to meet his. They shone with the light of the lamp, tiny white fireflies in a black sky.

Sakura continued; “‘Talking to him, I made my decision. I… I will leave with you.”

“What?!”, Naruto gasped, and she felt her own heart picking up speed.

Frantically, reading so rapidly her words tumbled over one another, she read; “‘I love my family, but I cannot wait to start my life with you. You were right: There will be no future for us in this town. If we leave together now, we can start over, just the two of us. Come to the family home at midnight, two days from now. I will be waiting.’”

“They ran away together?” Naruto’s laughter echoed in the room, but Sakura had long given up on trying to silence him.

“So, it can’t be Hashirama, then, can it?” Sasuke’s brow was thrown into shadows with the creases accompanying his frown. His black eyes were still trained on Sakura. “Did Tsunade say anything about anyone in her family vanishing?”

If she had, Sakura was sure she would have remembered. “Let’s just read the others!”

Naruto’s arms shot into view, scrambling across the floor to grab the next one on the pile.

All three of them went rigid simultaneously at the sound of footsteps in the hall.

Hefting himself back upright, Naruto’s weight caused the floorboards to groan. Sakura held her breath and listened.

It was Kurenai. Kurenai and someone else, speaking in low murmurs as they came past together.

“Shit!”, Sakura hissed, forgetting herself. If they decided to check the room randomly… She had been at homes before where they did that at night, and although she hadn’t seen it happen here, Naruto did mention that the staff would check if someone wasn’t in bed at bedtime, and make their rounds in the corridors. Did they somehow know she had slipped out?

Naruto caught her attention, gesturing to her with a corner of the blanket on his bed.

“Quick!”, he whispered, making a motion with his hands that took Sakura a few seconds to understand that he was indicating for her to slide under the bed.

Sakura gave him a look to say that he must be joking, however as the footsteps approached, she took a deep breath and darted underneath, fighting the feeling of claustrophobia at a large object looming over her. She was still just small enough to slot her body into the gap between the bed frame and the floor but, if she was still there in a couple of years, she was going to have to get sneakier with her hiding places.

There were some slight shuffling noises from the world outside of the bed frame, and the little light they’d had vanished, replaced by pitch black nothingness. Sakura came to recognise that she’d been holding her breath, and she inhaled deeply, holding it and counting.

The footsteps paused in the corridor outside.

A moment later, they continued on, growing ever faint and distant.

Sakura waited for several more seconds before sliding out and exhaling, hard.

The lamp clicked back to life, revealing Naruto crouching beside it.

“Come on”, he enthused, “let’s finish the last letters!”

“Not now.” Sasuke’s voice was quiet, and Sakura started when she saw that he had somehow made his way over to his bed and gotten under the covers without her hearing. “It’s late.”

Naruto protested; “But there are only a few left! And they’re short, look!”

Sakura didn’t point out that the next one, before the final three, seemed long: Perhaps longer than any of the others. As much as she longed to join in, she knew that Kurenai could always come back.

“I’d better hurry and get to me room or Karin will rat me out.” That had certainly happened a couple of times since her arrival. She swallowed back her own disappointment. “Goodnight!”

Sasuke and Naruto both echoed her goodnight back at her, and she closed the door softly as she made her exit.

Even tiptoeing down the corridor, Sakura’s footsteps came unnaturally loud. She thought she could maybe even hear her own bones rattling with the cold: She could clearly feel them, prompting her limbs to shake and shudder.

Nearly there. Nearly there, and then she could slip under the sheets in her warm bed, and rest until dawn.

She paused as she reached the reception area, her gaze briefly scanning across the large empty lobby.

Except, she was sure that shadow hadn’t been there before.

Her line of vision traveled along the length of the shadow, and up to where Shizune stood at the reception desk, a mug of something in her hand.

Sakura opened her mouth, preparing to explain, to apologise.

Shizune held one finger to her lips, pressing it against the tiny smile there.

Heart racing, Sakura gave a single grateful nod, and then she ran, making it back to her room in record time.

*

The alcove with the radiator, by the small staff room to the side of the building, was Kakashi’s usual hiding place on nights like this: The long ones that stretched on and on, each minute ticking away slowly.

Usually, he held his book in both hands, peering down at the pages as he whiled away the hours, pausing occasionally to walk the corridors and ensure none of the children were out of bed or up to anything they shouldn’t be. They rarely were, besides the occasional toilet break. Sometimes, he wished he would catch a kid running up and down causing mayhem, if only for a break to the monotony.

Today, however, his left hand clenched some of the letters that Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had spent the last couple of weeks working on. He had thought that perhaps in going over them again, he might be able to identify the writer and recipient.

With his right hand, he was reaching into the bag of candied snacks that sat on top of the radiator, before plucking one out and tossing it into the air in front of him, where it landed right in Gai’s mouth.

Moving amazingly silently for once, Gai darted back and forth along the corridor, racing to catch each candy that Kakashi threw. It was admittedly impressive that he had only managed to miss a couple of the dozen or so he had thrown so far, and a mildly amusing way to pass the time. He was certainly better at it than Kakashi’s own puppy, Pakkun.

Gai caught yet another one, chewed, and swallowed, before standing with his hands on his hips. “Okay.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, waiting for what was going to follow. He waited for a few seconds until Gai sidled up to him, leaning back against the wall beside him. “What’s so important in those letters?” Squinting, he leaned in closer. “What language is that?”

Without looking up, Kakashi replied; “It’s a code.”

“A code?” Gai narrowed his eyes. “You mean to tell me you’re a spy, Kakashi?”

It was simpler by far to ignore him than to humor him. “They’re coded letters that were found locally. The translations are here, see? It’s a part of the history project Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura are doing.”

“Oh, about family history, right?”

“Hm?” Kakashi hadn’t realised that was what it was supposed to be about.

“Lee did the same one last year, only he did it about the house and the town. I guess they’re doing the same?”

Well, that would make sense. Kakashi looked back down at the letters, the blocky print swirling together before his eyes and becoming indecipherable the longer he looked.

“Yeah, Lee didn’t find out very much”, Gai was saying, apparently unbothered by the lack of reply. “I think he ended up doing more with his friends than with me in the end. I was very proud of him, of course.”

Kakashi finally put the letters away, folding them until they formed a small square, and placing them securely inside his pocket. Then he turned to his co-worker.

“Gai. Do you really like it here so much?”

“Yes!” The man didn’t hesitate to answer.

Kakashi stared up the empty hall to his left, in the direction of the kitchen. It seemed even gloomier than usual, with any potential light from the moon covered by thick clouds. Quietly, he asked; “What do you like about it?”

Gai’s words flowed from his mouth like a tumultuous river bursting its banks, and Kakashi leaned his head back to press against the cool of the wall while he listened.

“Well, it’s good being able to form bonds with the kids and watch them grow into the best people they can be. It’s nice seeing them achieving things, and knowing you’ve had a hand in that along the way. Ooh, and sometimes, it can be really fun! I like coming up with activities and games to do to keep them from getting bored, and for them to use to improve themselves. Recently we started doing a martial arts-”

Kakashi yawned, and he knew Gai had caught him because from the corner of his eye he saw the man’s mouth drop open, breaking off mid-sentence.

“You know, you could at least pretend to be interested!”, Gai blustered.

Kakashi swivelled his head to meet Gai’s gaze. “Go ahead. Interest me.”

Gai paused in whatever he was about to say, mouth still open, and Kakashi became increasingly aware of the small space that the two of them were in.

The intense silence was only broken when Kakashi threw another candy at Gai’s face.

“Hey!”

“Got to be quicker next time.”

With Gai’s gaze diverted away from him, it became easier to think, to talk. Gai was… A little overwhelming, Kakashi thought. Not necessarily in a bad way. He wondered what it would have been like if he’d had someone like Gai growing up. How things might have been different for him.

“I was in a home”, he found himself saying, and Gai paused, glancing up from where he was collecting the candies that had missed his mouth off of the floor. “Like this. Several, actually.” He shrugged, feigning boredom. “Most of the workers hated us, I think.”

Gai stared at him for a long time, eyes round. Kakashi was almost scared he was going to start crying, until he spoke again.

“I was an orphan, too, although I was a couple of years older than Lee is now when my father died- you know, I already told you. I got lucky, though. The foster home I went to was nice. An actual home.”

Kakashi felt an odd pulse of relief at hearing that: The mental image of Gai as a small child, crying all alone in a dark shadowy room, was almost painful it was so palpable. It was nice to know that it was just his imagination, overreacting.

“As nice as this place?”

“This place is nice… In a different way. There are a lot of children here who need attention, and stability”, Gai mused. “Yes, stability, especially. I think some of them are a little too used to people coming and going in and out of their lives.”

“It’s tough.”

A hum. “It is.”

“I’ve lost people I care about”, Kakashi murmured, keeping his voice light although the names rose up in his throat- Obito, Rin, his parents- and threatened to choke him. He swallowed them back down.

“I’m very sorry, Kakashi”, said Gai, and when Kakashi looked, he saw that he was: Sorrowful, yet not pitying.

Kakashi shrugged. It was what it was. “Not sure why I’m telling you that”, he said, half to himself. “My therapist has been encouraging me to be more open, that’s probably why.” He glanced over at Gai. “If I met you a year ago, I think I would have hated you.” Then, at his lowest point, having somebody so chipper following him about could have very well driven him insane.

He paused when he saw that Gai’s face was crumpled in confusion. Had he offended him with that? It was only the truth.

“What?”, he asked, mildly annoyed that, of all the things he had said to Gai, this was the one that had upset him.

“I… Thought you hated me a little now.” Gai gave an uneasy chuckle, and Kakashi turned those words over in his mind. “Partly, I’ve been trying to get along better with you. To break that wall between us.” He raised one fist in the air. “But now it appears there was no wall to break!”

His eyes were brimming. Kakashi groaned.

“Eh… Well…”

Gai’s palm was shoved into his face. “Oh, no, you can’t take it back now. You don’t hate me!”

“I don’t like you either.”

“Yes, but you don’t hate me. You see me as an equal!” Really, where was he getting all of this? “As a… a- a rival!”, he finally came out with, triumphant.

“I have nothing to compete with you over”, Kakashi pointed out.

“Martial arts?” Gai mimed punching and kicking into the corridor before slumping back inside the alcove. “Our job?”

“I’m clearly superior to you in every way.”

Gai pointed one finger toward the bag of candies. “But can you catch four in a row like me?”

Kakashi snuggled further down into the fabric of his turtleneck sweater, feigning another yawn. “Maybe one day we’ll test it.”

Who knew? Maybe one day they would. Not here, though. It wouldn’t be too embarrassing, he supposed, to show a lack of dignity around someone so thoroughly lacking in it as Gai.

The sound of footsteps swallowed anything else they may have been about to say.

Melting further back into the shadows, Kakashi tugged at Gai’s sleeve and nodded in the direction of two bodies walking close together down the hall, indicating with his finger to remain silent.

Asuma and Kurenai didn’t speak as they passed, walking quietly and glancing at the doors of the rooms on the right side of the corridor. Kurenai had her phone out and was using it as a flashlight in one hand; Asuma had both of his own hands tucked in his pockets, hunched over for warmth.

Gai leaned forward to watch them as they passed, only his arm struck the radiator with a dull clang. Kakashi swiftly yanked him back into the alcove as the bright light from Kurenai’s phone shone a beacon across the space in front of them.

When the light again vanished, Kakashi himself moved forward. Kurenai was turning back in the direction of the kitchen.

Gai joined on his left and, as they watched, Asuma reached out to take Kurenai’s hand, only to completely miss and grasp at thin air when she turned back in their direction.

By the time the light found them, Kakashi and Gai were in hysterics, leaving a red-faced Asuma and unsuspecting Kurenai staring at them in bewilderment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry that this is a little late! It took me a few days longer to write this than I had originally anticipated. Hope you enjoy! :)))


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, sorry that it's been a little while since I updated this! The last few weeks were the end of term and so I was busy with a lot of exams and essay writing, and although it's the holidays I will likely still be essay-writing well into January. *sobs* That being said, I hope anyone reading this enjoys these chapters, and that you're all safe and warm wherever you are! :)))))

There was an older girl crying in the bathroom. She must have punched something too, from the looks of her hands: Her knuckles were red-raw and- Ino peered along the row of basins to see where she was scrubbing at them- one of them had actually split right at the hardest point, any blood that might have congealed there washed away under the spray.

Ino focused on fixing her hair in the mirror. She had only come in to check that it would stay securely in the ponytail on top of her head for their next class: Gym. Which, depending on the day and what they were doing, was either one of Ino’s favorite subjects, or the bane of her existence.

She failed to recognize the girl from the quarter-profile she could see until Sakura, leaning against the basin beside her, leaned and whispered; “Tenten.”

Ino blinked, pushing away from the cool porcelain and letting her hands drift down to her sides. Turning, she finally took in the messy twin buns on either side of her head; the bright, colorful jacket tied about the girl’s waist.

“Hm.” It was Lee’s friend. She didn’t seem as cheerful as usual: Just the opposite, in fact. Ino caught a glimpse of her reflection as she stared, and noted that her eyes were as red and raw as her hands.

Sakura was already approaching her cautiously, one hand outstretched. “Tenten. What happened?”

Tenten snapped her head about to look at them hurriedly. She put on a smile and Ino’s heart sank. “It’s nothing, really.”

“No, tell us. What’s going on? Are you okay?” Ino too moved closer as she spoke. Tenten’s hands seemed even worse up close. A sudden prick of anger stabbed at her, at the thought that someone might have hurt Tenten. Could it be that she was being bullied? She knew that Lee had had his problems with it in the past, and the two of them were both so kooky sometimes… A lot of guys in Tenten’s year didn’t like her often abrasive attitude, Ino had heard, although she wondered whether that was an excuse since she had never seen Tenten do anything overly weird herself.

Sighing, Tenten drew her hands up to her face, pressing her still-wet palms to her cheeks. A few small droplets trailed their way down to her chin.

When she released them down, she looked between the two younger girls and said, “It’s Neji.”

“What did he do?”, gasped Ino. What an asshole. She couldn’t believe she used to think Neji was hot. Well, she still kind of did. But his being an asshole precluded that.

“No, it-” Tenten leaned against the wall and slowly, slowly, sank down onto her haunches, resting her long thin arms between her legs with her hands clasped and dropping her chin down. “Neji and Lee are my best friends, and I love them both so much.” Her voice shook. “And I want to help them, but I don’t know how.”

Sakura and Ino squatted down on either side of her. Ino had to shuffle in close to avoid hitting her back on the basins.

“Help them with what?”, Sakura whispered.

Rather than answering, Tenten screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. Ino could see that she was not breathing and, after a few seconds, she spluttered and gasped, sobbing a little when she inhaled.

Sakura patted her arm with one hand. “Alright, alright.” She leaned in to wrap an arm about Tenten, shooting Ino a panicked look, pink hair falling in messy strands about her face.

Ino shuffled forward to look at Tenten’s hair: It was clumped within the buns, several strands falling outside of them.

“Here, let me help you with this.”

Gently, she brushed the soft brown locks out and then partitioned her hair into two large segments, then three smaller ones with the half she held. The braid began to form as her fingers deftly weaved the strands together, interlacing them one over another. Sakura, realizing what she was doing, got started on the other side. Ino wordlessly produced a couple of spare hairbands that she had in her bag, passing one across to her friend.

They took their time with it, ensuring that all of Tenten’s hair was secured tightly. During that time, Tenten slowly stopped shuddering. Ino was both glad and sorry that she couldn’t think of any other way to help.

“Tenten, I’m sorry”, Sakura said when they were done, her fingers still running over the bumps in the braid, and Ino appreciated that her best friend seemed to be experiencing the same thought process as herself. “Do you want to come and sit with us today?”

Ino half-expected her to say no, but Tenten gave another sigh and said; “Yes, please. And I’m sorry, I’m just getting emotional today for some reason, it was stupid of me-”

“It’s okay, Tenten. Really.” Ino smiled and clambered to her feet, extending her hands out to help the other two girls up. There was no use listening to her blaming herself. “Let’s go get lunch.”

They marched out of the bathrooms together, Ino threading her arm through the crook of Tenten’s elbow, and they headed to the cafeteria.

It was a little awkward, as they sat down and produced their lunch. Ino normally split part of hers with Sakura, giving her the parts she didn’t like, since she knew Sakura didn’t usually bring all that much. Today she passed them across- a banana and some honey drink, which Ino actually liked but which Sakura much preferred- without speaking.

Together, they turned to face the newcomer of their group.

Ino and Sakura both liked Tenten, and she had always seemed tough in Ino’s eyes. But now, after seeing her vulnerable and consoling her, Ino was unsure of what to say. She didn’t know her that well, after all. She hoped that Sakura would say something, since she knew Tenten better through living with Lee, except she didn’t.

A tray clattered onto the table beside Ino, and she pivoted to find Chouji dragging out the chair beside her.

“Girls only today, Chouji”, she snapped, a little harsher than she intended. “Get lost.”

Giving her a look that was part-bewildered and part-hurt Chouji complied, hurriedly gathering up his tray and heading to the usual long table that the guys sat at. Guilt threatened to rise in her chest until she saw Shikamaru sit down beside Chouji, throwing a questioning glance in her direction.

The look she returned was her best approximation of an ‘I’ll explain later’ stare. It must have worked; Shikamaru looked away.

“So, what is all of this about Neji?”, Ino asked as she turned back to the table, figuring that it was time to break the silence. “What are you crying over him for?”

Tenten jabbed at the bowl of rice in front of her, and Ino thought she already seemed to regret bringing it up as her face fell.

“He’s keeping secrets from us. I could maybe help him if only he wasn’t keeping secrets.”

“Well, it’s not your job to help him”, she pointed out. “Or Lee. They’re their own people.”

“But Ino, she’s concerned about them!”, Sakura blurted out. “She’s their friend, of course she wants to help them!”

Ino gave her a look. Of course, she would say that. Often, in cases like this, she would start a debate, but she didn’t want to argue now and make Tenten feel awkward.

“Anyway, let’s talk about something happier for now”, suggested Ino.

“Okay.” Sakura nodded solemnly, and Ino hoped she was going to come up with something interesting. Instead, she turned to the older girl and asked; “Tenten, could you maybe help me with my maths homework?”

Ino gave her a cold stare. “How is maths happy?”

Her friend shrugged back at her. “She’s in the year above so she’ll find it easy.”

“And giving you the answers will cheer her up?” Even as she bit out the words, Ino felt exasperation clawing at her mind. It looked as though the argument was bound to happen anyway.

“I don’t want her to tell me the answers, only how to work it out so I can do it myself”, protested Sakura.

“Wow, you can’t even cheat properly.”

Whatever Sakura’s presumably lame comeback was, Ino didn’t hear it. She had stopped paying attention when she noticed the short girl with thick dark hair making her way over with Shino to sit at the table where some of the other guys were enjoying their lunch.

“Hinata!” The girl’s head jerked around. “Hinata, come sit with us!”

Hinata stared at her for a moment, unsure, and then a small smile touched her face. She gave a single nod, glanced at Shino, and then scurried over to join them.

“Thank you”, she half-bowed as she lowered herself into the chair opposite Ino, and then looked at Tenten beside her. “Um… Tenten, a- are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Hinata.” Tenten’s voice still croaked a little, but her smile was bright. “How have you been?”

“Fine”, Hinata answered amicably. She looked down, focusing in on her food.

Ino realized she hadn’t even started eating yet and began to tuck into her own lunch, glancing up only when she spied that Neji and Lee had joined them, standing silently to the side of their table and making no attempt to grab their attention. Did they just assume the girls would notice them? How rude.

Tenten's mouth twisted this way and that as she stared up at them, yet none of them made any move to speak.

“What do you want?”, Ino demanded.

“Ino!” Sakura’s face was tinged pink.

“Hello, Sakura”, Lee said, as always a decibel above an acceptable volume. Completely ignoring the rest of them, Ino noted. As much as she liked Lee in general when she thought of him, when he was actually there his presence tended to grate on her nerves. “We have come to see whether Tenten is okay!”

Opening her mouth, Ino meant to tell them to get lost. After all, who did they think they were, causing her distress and then coming over to check on her? Only Tenten spoke first. She was smiling, seemingly calmer now.

“I’m fine, guys. I just wanted to eat lunch with the girls for once.”

“With the girls?” Neji looked at them with an expression that Ino imagined was disgust, as though he had only just noticed their existence and was already thoroughly unimpressed by it. His pupils settled on Hinata, who had been understandably keeping her head down throughout the interaction.

“Yes, with the girls”, Sakura replied firmly, meeting Neji’s gaze. Ino cheered internally. She knew Sakura had it in her somewhere.

Neji looked back to Tenten. “Alright then. I’ll see you in maths, I guess.”

With that, he turned about and walked to the table where Chouji, Shikamaru and a few of their other friends now sat. Lee gave Sakura a tiny smile before following him.

Ino saw that Tenten was still staring after Neji.

Leaning toward the older girl, she teased; “So what is the deal with the two of you?”

“Me and Neji?” Tenten raised an eyebrow, her voice turning harsh. “Nothing!”

“Oh, so it’s Lee, then, is it?” The thought was almost amusing. Ino liked Lee, sure, but in that way… No.

“Ino! They’re both my friends.”

She changed her tactic, glad that the other three girls are all smiling now at least.

“What about you then, Sakura? That new guy in our history class is cute, right?”

“Ino.”

“I’m kidding.” She waved a hand, realizing that the joke had dragged on a little. Returning to her food, she continued; “Trust me, I get it from Chouji and Shikamaru all the time. They think I’m into every guy that we meet.”

Sakura’s cheeks had gone as pink as her hair, Ino noted as they all continued eating. It was a nice look on her. If Sakura blushed more often maybe more boys would overlook the billboard that was her forehead and think that she was pretty.

They finished lunch with minimal chatter and Ino, fed up with the boys continually glancing over at them, suggested that they go for a walk outside before they had to go in for their next class. The others agreed and they scrabbled to grab up their things.

Outside, the air was crisp and fresh despite it being past midday. Tenten walked on ahead, lost in a world of her own, and Ino dropped back a little to where Hinata and Sakura were walking side-by-side. Now was her chance to get to the bottom of this.

“Hey, Hinata”, she began, keeping a lilting and overly innocent tone in her voice, “do you have any idea what’s going on with Neji?”

Hinata dropped her head so that her dark bangs were all that was visible, and mumbled something incomprehensible.

“Huh?”

“Not really.” Her voice came out thin and breathless.

Sakura gently touched Hinata’s arm, although all that seemed to accomplish was making her jump. The pink-haired girl winced apologetically. “Are you sure? Nothing at all?”

The shorter girl’s eyes filled with tears and she shook her head, long dark hair falling over her shoulders.

Ino glanced around: Tenten was still walking ahead of them by herself. When she looked back Hinata was thoroughly miserable: There was no other way to describe it. It did not look as though she would actually cry, Ino thought, but there was certainly pain written all over her crumpled face.

“Sakura.” Hinata grabbed at her arm and pulled her in close, and Ino strained to her whispered words. “I- d- don't know if I can say."

"Say what?"

Hinata's whisper was barely audible. "Dad. He gets mad at Neji sometimes. When it’s really m- my fault.”

Sakura went pale. “Does he hurt Neji?”

That wasn’t what had come to Ino’s mind first of all, but everything seemed to slide into place when Sakura said it out loud.

Ah. Of course.

“No. No. I- it’s my fault, though”, insisted Hinata. Her grip on Sakura’s arm was so pale her knuckles had turned white. “That’s why he gets mad at me.”

Ino shook her head. “Hinata, I’m sure it’s not-”

Sakura threw her a panicked look, and she stopped. Right. Best not to argue and upset Hinata further.

Their pace was slowing, a deliberate ploy on Sakura’s part, she noticed. Ino matched her steps. Hinata began to draw on ahead and then- as Ino had hoped- with one last glance back at her classmates she made her way to Tenten’s side.

As soon as she was a safe distance ahead, Ino exchanged a shocked, dismayed look with Sakura. Shit. She genuinely hadn't seen that coming.

“Do you think her dad is- is, I don’t know, really hurting Neji?”, Sakura hissed. “He’s not actually his kid, right?”

“I don’t know. Hinata said no, but… It would explain a lot.” She frowned, thinking back to Neji and Hinata’s argument and the terrifying feeling- so similar to how she felt now- gnawing at her stomach. “Even if he’s not, there has to be something wrong at home.”

Sakura nodded, her mouth set in a film line. “We should tell someone- Tenten, or a teacher, or-”

“What if we’re wrong, though?”, asked Ino. “Or-”, a darker thought struck her, “-what if we’re right, and whoever we tell goes to their dad? I don’t want either of them to get in trouble.”

Ino wasn’t the type of person to doubt herself normally, but then she had never had to face something that felt as serious as this. Her insides were constricting, intestines curling in on each other in a tight knot, as she watched Hinata and Tenten talking.

“We can’t just do nothing”, Sakura insisted under her breath, and Ino looked to her. She was right, of course.

“We’ll think about it.” Ino perked up. “We can invite Hinata out with us and try to talk to her maybe to find out more. And ask Tenten and Lee more about Neji.”

Sakura bit her lip. “I don’t know… This isn’t some fun investigation or gossip…”

“I know that.” It stung a little that Sakura thought she wasn’t mature enough to understand that. She had only gotten excited at the thought that they may be able to do something to help. “Okay, let’s just think it over. There’s not much we can do when we have to get to class, and Hinata will be at school with us anyway. We’ll talk after school and decide who to tell, okay?”

For a moment she thought Sakura might argue but, to Ino’s relief, she merely nodded.

Unsure of what else to do, Ino reached out for her friend’s hand, and gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze. Although Sakura’s eyes were still troubled, she returned the wavery smile Ino gave her, and then the two of them rushed to catch up with Hinata, who was walking silently at Tenten's side.

*

Something was going on with the girls.

Naruto wasn’t quite sure what: He had never been well-versed in girls: Sometimes guys talked about them as if they were a whole other species with their own language, and sometimes they were, but sometimes they were normal too.

Sakura was usually normal, except when she was angry at him. Or when Sasuke was around. And Hinata was generally normal too, even if she was always insanely shy and mumbled a lot.

So, it was strange that they were sitting at a separate table in the lunchroom, along with Ino and Tenten. Naruto watched them from in between Shikamaru and Kiba as they giggled and talked in low voices.

“They didn’t say why they wanted to sit away from us?”, he asked again.

Shikamaru shook his head.

“Huh. What’s going on with them?”

“Who knows? They’re weird.”

He focused on eating his lunch, only to jump as two people moved to stand over him.

The whole table fell silent as they turned to gaze at Lee and Neji.

“It’s cool if we sit here, right?”, Lee asked brightly.

There was a long moment of silence. Naruto swallowed.

“Sure thing, Lee”, he answered, choosing his words carefully.

He could feel Kiba and Shikamaru’s gazes boring holes into him, and he understood why. Naruto did not particularly want Neji there, either, but Lee was like a brother to him. He couldn’t just say no.

The two older boys made their way to the end of the table, where Shino sat, and dragged a couple of chairs over to sit down. Naruto noticed that quite a few other kids in the cafeteria were staring.

In a way, it was kind of cool, having Neji sit with them, for all of the hassles he had caused recently. He was in the year above, and kids in the year above didn’t often sit with kids in their year. Well, Lee and Tenten were in the year above too, but nobody ever freaked out about having them there, since they were kind of weirdos. Neji was one of the more popular kids in his year- or, he had been, until the last year or so.

The others were all sneaking glances at him, even Shikamaru, with the two glaring exceptions of Chouji, who was simply enjoying his lunch, and Sasuke, who seemed unbothered by the whole thing. Curse him and his cool attitude.

Neji was glaring at Shino, who stared quietly at him across the table, not even eating. Naruto internally groaned. Shino was quiet and harmless most of the time, sure, but he was also really weird, and occasionally that weirdness popped out.

Eventually, Neji demanded; “Why are you staring at me?”

He did not receive an answer.

Everyone at the table- everyone in the cafeteria, it felt like- watched with their mouths hanging open as Shino silently pulled a small box- possibly a pencil case, once upon a time, though Naruto knew it no longer housed stationary- and set it down on the table in front of him.

Neji looked at it with suspicion.

Naruto winced, barely holding back a groan as Shino slowly opened his case and revealed the contents: Several bugs held suspended in amber, along with some dead butterflies.

"What the fuck? I'm trying to eat." With a disgusted expression on his face, Neji stood abruptly, lifted his tray, and walked to the other end of the table, taking a seat beside Chouji.

Kiba was guffawing as though it were the funniest thing he had ever seen. Naruto was surprised to see that even Sasuke was smiling to himself, his eyes fixed on Neji’s disgusted expression.

“He’ll never want to sit with us again now”, Shikamaru remarked lightly.

“Not a great loss”, Kiba replied. "The guy’s an asshole. Did you see him yelling at Hinata the other day? If I ever yelled at any of my cousins like that-” He broke off, struggling to think of something. “Well, I’d be in tons of trouble.”

Naruto felt that he should at least try to speak to Neji. The whole thing with Gaara had made him more mature, he felt. And a part of being mature was talking civilly with people you did not like, according to Tsunade.

Shifting forward in his seat, he said; “Hey, Neji, I’m sorry about him.”

Neji glared over his food. “Naruto.”

Hey, at least he got an acknowledgment.

At that moment Naruto became aware of the fact that he had no clue what else to say to continue that conversation. _Did he and Neji have anything in common?_ What did he even know about Neji other than that he was Hinata’s cousin?

Ah. He remembered.

Smiling, he began; “So, I heard you’re only half-Japanese, right? That’s cool?”

Neji was still frozen, frowning. In hindsight, Naruto would probably recognize that he should have stopped talking at that point.

Regardless, he kept going.

“One of the guys that works at my home is half-Japanese. He’s Japanese-Brazilian. I don’t know if Lee mentioned him ever, his name is Iruka. He doesn't speak Portuguese much though.”

Neji looked down at his lunch. When he looked back up, his pale eyes fixated on Naruto and he muttered; “You’re either Japanese or you’re not.”

That seemed a strange position to take. Shikamaru and Chouji and Ino were all Japanese and not Japanese. And Naruto was sure he had some sort of foreign blood, with his strange hair and eyes. It never really made a difference to him. Sure, some people thought it was weird, and some people thought it was cool, but that was on them.

When he looked back at the older boy, he saw that Neji had completely shut down, sliding his chair away from the table and hunching over his food, staring off into the distance. Lee was talking now, captivating the interests of the rest of their table, however Naruto continued to watch Neji.

He wasn’t staring into the distance; he was glaring. Glaring directly at Hinata, really truly _glaring_ like a guy in a movie who has been betrayed by their friend. A phrase, something to do with looks and their ability to kill, popped into his brain.

Hinata was oblivious to the death stare being sent her way, smiling as she listened to Sakura talking, and Naruto felt anger curling in his gut at the way Neji didn’t look away. Forget being mature. He was going to give Neji a piece of his mind.

Only, again, he thought of how everything had ended with Gaara. He sneaked a glance at Lee out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t start a fight like that again.

Yet, with a coldness that he didn’t know he possessed, Naruto turned away, refusing to even look at Neji.

After all, having family, only to treat them like that, was unforgivable.

*

That evening, Dr. Death came calling.

That was what Sakura called him, anyway.

Sasuke had initially assumed it was some childish nickname, but upon seeing the pale man with an almost skull-like face drifting through the halls, long black hair hanging limply halfway down his back, he had to admit it was a rather fitting moniker.

If anything, Sasuke thought, he was kind of cool, which was why he had suggested to Sakura that they follow him into Lee’s room to see what he was doing when he checked Lee’s arm. Sakura had given him a horrified look when he proposed that, but she had soon relented and agreed to join in.

The two of them hovered by Lee’s door, having promised Shizune they would stay quiet and out of the way as he examined Lee. They watched in silence as he questioned Lee, his heavily-lidded eyes lazily flitting between the boy’s cast and his face as he gave answers.

After several minutes, a set of footsteps came along the corridor and Tsunade walked in, striding straight toward where Dr. Death sat.

He glanced up at her, smiled pleasantly, and looked back to his patient.

“Ah- hello, Tsunade. Nice of you to join us.” His voice had a strange lilt to it, almost a slight lisp although it wasn't the same as the kid Sasuke remembered from elementary school who had had one. This was more of a hissing undercurrent that traveled through the air with every word spoken.

There was something about Tsunade's posture that made Sasuke think she wasn’t very happy about this. His suspicions were concerned when she spoke from behind gritted teeth.

“Orochimaru.”

“No need to say my name with such vitriol”, he replied lightly. “You were the one who asked me to come here.”

Ignoring him, she peered over his shoulder. “How is it?”

“Healing nicely. Although his sling is a little too tight, I trust you can help him with that.” He patted Lee’s shoulder with one hand, and Lee went pale. He had been strangely quiet so far; which was not all that surprising, considering the rumors Sakura had told him, passed to her from Lee and Naruto, about this man: That every time he came, bad stuff seemed to happen coincidentally just after. And you had better hope there was somebody watching over you if it was you he was visiting. “He’ll be better in no time.”

Curiously, Sasuke leaned forward. “How could you tell?”

Dr. Death- Orochimaru- turned to him, his thin pale lips pursing together. His eyes dragged down and then up Sasuke’s body once, assessing him from head to toe, before he spoke.

“I’ve seen so many broken limbs, many in far worse states than this. His arm is immobilized and secure. The pain is not so great, but there is a little abnormal swelling. That’s just where the sling is too tight.”

Lee nodded behind him, still apparently having been thankfully rendered mute for the evening.

“Wow”, Sakura murmured, and Sasuke almost jumped. He had forgotten she was there, had forgotten that she was the one who had spotted Orochimaru arriving after they came back from school late together- Sasuke because he had been working on homework in the library, Sakura because she was talking to some friends about some nonsense- and relayed the stories about him.

Tsunade cleared her throat. “Well, if he’s all good, you had best be going.”

Orochimaru met her gaze for a moment, before dipping his head once. He glanced back over at Sasuke once as he stood. “Of course.”

_What was going on there?_

Sasuke shook his head dismissively, shrugging it off, yet he still watched curiously as Orochimaru passed by. He wasn’t particularly interested in medicine or biology personally, although he did like science more than some other subjects; but this man’s solemn air and the way he carried himself was intriguing.

When he was gone, Sasuke stretched one arm and then the other, about to announce his own departure, not wanting to get drawn into further conversation.

However, before he could speak, Sakura said; “Tsunade, can I speak to you quickly? I just- I’m worried about a friend of mine, and…” She trailed away, looking down. She had barely looked at Sasuke in the last hour, he realized. That wasn't like her. He wondered what melodrama was absorbing her time now.

Tsunade frowned down at her. “Of course. Do you want to go to my office?”

Sakura nodded, and they disappeared off, leaving Sasuke further mystified, and alone with Lee. Just what he had hoped would not happen.

And, alas, Lee seemed to have found his voice once more.

“It’s good that I’m doing well, don’t you think, Sasuke? I’ll be back on my feet in no time! Especially with Gai helping me rehab my shoulder. I will soon rebuild my muscle strength!”

“What muscle strength?”, Sasuke snarked, leaning against the door so that, as soon as he desired, he could flee.

Lee didn’t appear to have heard: He was punching and kicking his way about the room, making noises as though he were in an action movie. He seemed excited.

Sasuke sighed. “Sit down before you fall over and break your other arm.”

For once, Lee did as he was told, sitting quietly on the ground. Sasuke stared down at him as he crossed his legs and blinked around the room, round eyes wide under the awful bowl cut he now sported.

He couldn’t be all that bad, Sasuke figured. He was Naruto and Sakura's friend, and he supposed that they had turned out to be okay- or better than he had expected, at least- so maybe he should try to talk to him.

“Why are you here?”, he asked, beginning his line of inquiry.

Lee stared. “What do you mean? This is my room.”

“At the home. Why are you here?”

A little defensively for Sasuke’s taste, Lee replied, “I don’t have parents. Why are _you_ here?”

Okay. Now that the question was turned back on him, he understood the hunch in Lee’s shoulders. “My parents died.”

The boy before him nodded. “I heard about that. I’m sorry.” He tilted his head. “But what I meant was, you’re part of the Uchiha family, right?”

Immediately Sasuke bristled. He didn’t like speaking about it and had been glad that not many people here seemed to bring it up, or to even be aware of his heritage. “I am. Why?”

“Well, weren’t they all rich? Founders of the town and all that? Why don’t you live with one of your family members?”

“We’re not- not, wealthy, anymore.” Sasuke looked down. “My parents had some money, but not a lot. My brother can’t afford for me to go and stay with him.”

His brother.

“You have a brother?”

Sasuke thought back to the other day. The visit he had made to see Itachi. The painful, painful truth of the matter: His brother did not want him.

That wasn't something he was about to share with somebody like Lee.

“I’m going back to my room”, he decided, striding out and across the hall.

Footsteps followed behind him.

“No! Sasuke- wait, I’m just interested because I’ve heard of the Uchiha family. Can I-”

He turned in the doorway so that he and Lee were nose to nose, and found himself staring into glassy black eyes. He really didn’t want Lee following him in. “No. Talk to me about this again and your other arm really will get broken.”

Lee met his gaze challengingly, eyes sparking. “Is that a threat? I’ll have you know that I am a master of-”

Sasuke shut the door in his face before he could finish that sentence.

*

Gai felt almost as though he had been invited into some secret society, as they stood in Naruto and Sasuke’s room that evening, lit by the low glow of lamplight, himself and Kakashi listening as the kids decoded the final four letters.

Sakura was reading: “‘Tomorrow our new lives begin. While my apprehensions over leaving my family have not died- apprehensions I know you have had concerns over- I am truly excited to finally be able to spend my life with you. I will see you after midnight, my love.’”

What a truly enchanting display of affection. Whoever wrote it must have been a poet of the highest caliber.

Gai looked over at Kakashi. He was straight-faced and looked a little tired, if anything, his eyes buried in the shadow of a furrowed brow. Gai had thought that Kakashi was starting to warm up to him a little, given that he had invited Gai there. He still didn’t really understand Kakashi at all, but he thought that now, maybe, he was beginning to.

He felt his face growing warm and swallowed, overcome with the emotional outpouring they had just been witness to. How thrilling to think that they may have been the first ones to hear this writing in decades.

Kakashi himself did not seem to be affected by the letters: Not visibly, anyway. Yet Gai had a feeling that Kakashi was somebody whose emotions ran deep. It must have been hard for him, for anyone, to not let out how they really felt.

Abruptly he became aware that Naruto was bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly, waving a bundle of paper in the adults’ direction.

“Read the next ones, read the next ones!”

Kakashi eyed him. “They’re short.” He glanced over to where Sakura and Sasuke remained kneeling on the floor. “There are three of you. Why don’t you each read one?”

Naruto frowned. “I don’t know…”

“That’s a great idea!”, Sakura gushed, and Gai nodded his agreement. It truly was, and how fitting for these three youngsters to share the end of this journey together.

“I’ll go first”, announced Sasuke. He sounded bored, but his hand trembled slightly as he snatched the top page from Naruto’s hand. “‘My dearest- I know that-’”

He broke off without warning, frowning at the page.

“What?”

Naruto scooted over to lean against his shoulder. “What is it?”

Sasuke cleared his throat. “‘My dearest- I know that I may have lost the right to address you as such. But please, believe me, I never wanted for any of this to happen. The tragic death that occurred in my own home is something that weighs heavily on my heart every waking moment. I am so very sorry, and my feelings for you remain as true as they ever did. If you would only agree to see me. Please, agree to see me.’”

“What?”, Sakura repeated, her eyes wide. She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly.

“So, they didn’t run away?”, demanded Naruto.

Kakashi shook his head. “I guess not. Read the next one.” His voice was as monotonous as always, yet a tremor ran through his shoulders that Gai thought only he had noticed. It was amusing that even Kakashi wanted to know what happened next.

Just as Naruto began to read from the pile in his lap, Gai heard Sasuke mutter to himself; “Tragic death?”

That part had indeed struck him as odd, too. They would have to discuss that, afterward.

For now, he listened to Naruto’s halting, hesitant words.

“‘I am growing increasingly worried, my love. You have closed yourself away- even from your family. I understand the pain you must be feeling right now, and I promise you that I had no knowledge of what was going to happen. I am aware that you blame my brother, and he is certainly partly to blame, but it was an accident. Neither of us could have predicted this. Please speak to your family, if not to me.’”

“What?”, Sakura gasped, the only word she seemed capable of uttering that evening. The tips of her fingers were turning white where they clenched at her legs. “It can’t end like that, can it?”

“No, I’m sure that can’t be it”, Gai reassured, “A love such as the one shared by these two could not be broken, I am sure, by-”

“Gai”, Kakashi said quietly.

He cleared his throat. “Please, Sakura, read on.”

Her voice was thick, and it shook slightly when she spoke. “‘My dearest. As you have not responded in some months, I will be ceasing my letters. If, by any chance, you wish to return my correspondence, I will be here, waiting. I am sure you have heard the news, and I beg you to understand that it does not alter my affections for you. I will be forever waiting.’” She laid the page face-down on the rug in front of her. “That’s it.”

“Maybe someone found out…” Naruto trailed off lamely. “Perhaps his brother, or…”

“It certainly sounds that way”, Kakashi replied grimly.

“What actually happened, though?”

Sasuke shook his head. “I suppose there’s no way of knowing.” Leaning against the frame of his bed, he tipped his head right back to stare at the ceiling.

Gai noticed that Sakura’s shoulders were shaking. She had leaned her head forward to rest on her knees, hair falling about her face.

Naruto had noticed, too.

“Sakura?”, he asked. When there was no response, he kicked at her calf. “Sakura, what’s the matter?”

She raised her head, and her eyes were wet, her face moist with tears and heat. “I just- I wanted them to have a happy ending so badly, I-” She broke off, clenching her fists. “Sorry. It’s been a really crappy day, and I thought if this ended well…”

Ignoring whatever code of conduct that would prohibit him from doing so, Gai moved across the room and knelt beside the girl to draw her into a hug, feeling the wetness soak into the chest of his woolen jade sweater. She had stopped crying by then, he noted, though her breath still came shallow and shaky. He was surprised by how much the hollow resolution had felt like a punch to his own gut. He could not imagine what these children, who had poured so much effort and so many hours into it, must be feeling. Naruto joined in the hug from the other side, looping one arm over Gai’s shoulder and one across Sakura’s back.

A hand came down on his arm, and when he looked up Kakashi was standing over them.

Sombrely, the silvery-haired man said; “Unfortunately, in real life, there are rarely happy endings.”

_Did he really believe that?_

All Gai could do was stare up at his co-worker in despair as he held tight to the children, hoping that they would not feel the same way.


	12. Chapter 12

“Psst.”

As usual, Shino was minding his own business in class. It was biology, as well, which meant he was especially focused since it was his favorite subject. So, at first, he did not realize that the person was calling to him.

Except then somebody’s foot grazed over the back of his calf. If they had connected just a half-inch further forward, he would have received a nasty bruise. Whoever it was, they were not kicking gently.

Before they could make another attempt, he spun about in his seat.

Kiba was leaning so far forward at the lab desk behind him that he was in serious danger of accidentally turning the gas taps on. The overly-large lab goggles they had to wear had slid halfway down his nose.

Shino glanced about. Their teacher was on the other side of the room, helping another group of students whose experiment wasn’t going exactly right: Naruto’s group, of course. Shino’s group- consisting of himself, Sakura, Chouji, and Hinata, probably the best group he could have hoped for in their class- had already completed the experiment, and their variously colored and labeled vials sat in their holder waiting to be examined.

Figuring it was safe, he looked back to Kiba. “What is it?”

“Hey, it’s Friday today.”

Really? Was that all Kiba had wanted to say? And people seemed to think Shino was weird… “Yes, it is.”

He turned back to the front of the room and narrowly avoided an eraser clipping the side of his head.

“What?”, he muttered through gritted teeth.

Kiba blinked at him, eyes wide, as though something had thrown him off or was preventing him from whatever it was he wanted to say. After a short pause, he asked; “Is your family doing anything this weekend?”

“Not particularly.” Shino shrugged. Weekends for him were generally lazy days. He got up late, did schoolwork, read some stuff online, watched videos, and occasionally did a short trip with his parents to visit their extended family members. “My father works in the mornings on Saturdays.”

“Can I stay over tonight?”

“Really?” The question struck Shino as rather bold, especially considering he and Kiba had only really started speaking over the past few weeks. He would certainly never have dared to ask such a thing. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why?”, Kiba asked, snorting and briefly glancing to where the rest of his group were continuing with dropping tiny drips of liquid into their test tubes and noting the reactions down. He ran one hand through his hair. “Because we’re friends, idiot.”

Shino narrowed his eyes, not that Kiba would be able to see it behind his glasses. He was sure it would be fine; his parents would likely be glad that he had made a friend who could stay over. However, he didn’t want to give Kiba the satisfaction of having acquiesced to his demands so easily. “Why can’t I stay over at yours?”

“We don’t really have space”, the boy answered swiftly, the pitch of his voice rising subtly. “Besides, my room is messy. But your place is big and your parents are super nice and stuff. We can work on the history project some more if you want? Or maybe the geography homework?”

Shino startled a little. For Kiba to even offer that was a huge shock.

He fought against the tiny smile that threatened to worm its way onto his face. Maybe he and Kiba really were friends now.

As Kiba’s groupmates began calling to him to join back in, Shino gave him a small nod and turned back to the front, just in time to see the teacher heading in their direction.

“I’ll ask my parents.”

*

Since any real training with a broken arm was largely out of the question- as per Tsunade’s orders- Lee found himself sitting in his room and attempting alternate methods of energizing himself.

“Lee? Are you alright?”, a timid voice called as the door to his room creaked open and he opened one eye in time to see Shizune’s face appear in the gap.

“I am meditating”, he informed her, shuffling slightly. The cross-legged position would have been more comfortable on his bed but sitting on the floor helped him keep a straight back.

“Okay. Well, you have a visitor.”

“A visitor?” Both eyes flew open now.

“A visitor.” She gave him a small nod.

Lee leaped to his feet, rounding the bed and following Shizune to the lobby at the front of the building. Who could it possibly be? Was Neji coming to see him and apologize for his recent behavior? Was Tenten here to see him? Lee was still wondering what had happened yesterday when she left them to sit with the other girls.

He stopped stock-still when they rounded the corner. Shizune continued on to the desk, taking her usual seat behind it.

The desk.

Which Gaara stood next to.

The boy gave no smile or any sort of recognition that he saw Lee walk in: He simply stared with his strange pale green eyes.

Lee’s legs began working again, and with it his mouth.

“Gaara?”, he asked as he approached. “Why are you here?”

In all honesty, he was not sure how to feel about such a turn of events. He felt little resentment toward Gaara for what had happened- Lee had determined it to be an accident, it was his own carelessness in rushing in that had caused his suffering- but had Gaara not been harassing his friends or not pushed him he would not be in this situation. In either case, Lee did not think that a confrontation at this time would be very useful.

His face pinched and pale, Gaara turned away from Shizune, drawing the scarf about his neck up close to his mouth. Around it, he murmured; “I have come to apologize to you. I am sorry that I broke your arm, Lee.”

“Oh, this?” Lee rubbed at the back of his head. “I’d pretty much forgotten about it already.”

Gaara peered at him owlishly. “But… Are you not mad at me?”

“I am mad. You broke my arm, Gaara, of course, I’m mad!”

The younger boy’s face had turned mildly petrified. Lee realized he had perhaps been a little too much. Sakura often told him that he could be sometimes.

Dialing his tone and volume down, he continued: “Hey, it’s alright. I’m mad, but I’m not going to hurt you over it. I broke my arm because both of us were being dumb trying to fight each other and I had bad luck when I tripped. Sure, you pushed me, but I would have pushed you too if I had seen you trip toward me!” He laughed briefly, head tilted back, then paused as Gaara was still regarding him warily. “Really, Gaara, you need to learn to let go. You can’t hold onto hating someone forever, it’ll hurt too much. That’s what Gai- a friend of mine- told me. Or something like that. He used a big metaphor with elephants that I don’t remember now.” Gai would certainly be proud of him, for saying something so grand, had he been there.

Gaara took the whole of his speech in silently.

Lee glanced over toward Shizune: She was doing an excellent job of pretending not to listen, typing away at the computer.

“Can I see your arm?”, Gaara asked quietly. “The- ah.”

“The cast?” A nod. “Oh- sure.” He hadn’t expected that. Lee stepped forward until he was beside Gaara.

The boy stretched out one hand slowly, fingers trembling, until he could brush the tips of his first two fingers over the bumpy sapphire surface.

“It was really cool how they made it. They have to mold it to fit you so they layer it on, one piece at a time, with like this wet stuff, and then when it dries it goes hard so you can’t move your arm and it heals properly.”

Gaara’s own green eyes seemed transfixed as he gazed quietly across the ridges and grooves. Lee began to grow antsy, shuffling from foot to foot while trying to keep his upper body as still as possible.

“Do you want to write something on it?”, he asked.

Gaara blinked. “You want me to write?”

“You can.”

“I don’t know what I would write.”

“What about your name?”

“I don’t know how to write it in kanji.”

"Ah- wait here a moment."

Ignoring Shizune's calls for him not to run, _please, Lee_ , he dashed back to his room, fishing out a notebook and a pen.

"Here's how you write your name in katakana", he explained breathlessly once he had returned. It wasn't necessarily his best handwriting, given that he was unable to use his dominant hand; yet, he felt it was satisfactory enough that Gaara could learn from it. He held the notebook out to the other boy. "Try it."

Gaara tried, shakily repeating the same strokes that Lee had made, albeit a little out of order.

When he was done, he glanced up at Lee. "Is it okay?"

Lee looked down at the page. He bit his lip in silence for a moment before returning Gaara's anxious stare. "Maybe if you just draw a heart or something?"

He held his cast out, and Gaara did as requested, scrawling a cartoonish approximation of a heart.

Silence fell over them as Gaara put the cap back on the pen and held it out to Lee. He still seemed hilariously awkward, as if afraid Lee was about to snap at him or blame him for his injury.

"Do you want to come and watch a movie or something?" The lounge had been quiet several minutes ago, although Lee could never predict when Karin would descend. "We can invite Naruto and Sasuke too?" And maybe Sakura, he thought but did not say. He would not want to overwhelm Gaara with two many people at once, even if she did seem to tag along to wherever Naruto was going recently.

Gaara stared at him for a moment that was so long Lee wondered whether Gaara had heard him. Then he said; "Naruto?"

"And Sasuke?", Lee repeated.

Gaara pursed his lips. "Naruto."

Ah. Lee gave a short, sharp burst of laughter. He had to admit, he was not Sasuke's biggest fan at the moment either, considering how he had slammed his door in Lee's face the day before. "We'll invite them both, but I don't think Sasuke will come."

For the first time, Gaara gave him a tiny smile and a nod, and Lee wondered how he could ever have thought this little boy was intimidating.

*

The lighting of the gym was rather low, low enough that, in his dark hoodie pulled right up about his face and hovering around in the lobby, Kakashi sincerely hoped that he wasn’t about to be mistaken for some kind of stalker.

The girl behind the desk kept glancing at him, and he didn’t blame her. Still, he didn’t want to go over and get sucked into a conversation when he was only hoping to bump into one person.

Gai had said he would be here tonight, and that he left normally around this time.

Kakashi glanced up again. He hoped he hadn’t missed him.

His mouth dropped open when he spotted a streak of green and orange bounding down the hall and through the turnstile. A large paw of a hand came up to wave at the girl, and she smiled a smile that was part-pleasant, part-amused.

Gai too stopped in his tracks, gaping when he spotted Kakashi.

“Kakashi? What are you doing here?”

“Hello, Gai.” He cleared his throat, looking his co-worker up and down. His eyes widened in surprise as he took in his outfit. Green spandex sculpted against his muscles, and orange legwarmers. “Do you really wear that in class?”

“Of course!” Gai grinned, shrugging his duffel bag up on his shoulder. “I have a ton of these jumpsuits! Why, did you want to borrow one?”

“I’d rather not look completely ridiculous, thank you.”

“Hey!” Gai’s eyes seemed to bulge. “Are you just here to insult me, or did you actually need something?”

Kakashi decided to get to the point. “I remember you saying that you used this gym. And that you give classes?”

“Yep! Have done my whole life. Used the gym, that is. My dad used to be the janitor here.”

“Mm. Well, I’ve been meaning to get back into taekwondo.” Kakashi had been thinking about it ever since they finished reading those letters. They would never find out who wrote them, and it didn’t matter anyway now, did it? He might as well find something else to occupy his time. “And I don’t know that many gyms in the area, so I thought why not try here?”

“Really?”, Gai gaped. “You want to come here with me?”

“I want to come here”, Kakashi corrected him. It wasn’t solely that Gai had mentioned this place: It was also conveniently located, only a ten-minute drive from his apartment. There was also the fact that it had good reviews online, and it seemed fairly quiet and clean at this time in the evening. He added; “Although I’m not sure if I want to join back in with a class right away. I’m a little rusty.”

“No way, you were enviably good when I saw you kicking that one time! But… If you are a little concerned, you can work out on some of the equipment here to build up your strength?” As Gai spoke Kakashi followed him over to one of the vending machines in the corner of the small lobby and waited as he purchased a bottle of water. They took a seat at one of the little two-seater tables in front of the reception desk and Gai continued; “Or I could book a hall if you want a couple of private sessions, just to go over everything and practice? I’ve been doing the same thing with Lee. Booking him private sessions. We do gentle exercises for his arm. He will be back to full strength in no time.”

Gai grinned and gave a thumbs up. Kakashi couldn’t decide whether to smile or roll his eyes.

He settled instead on giving a tiny nod. “That would be good, thank you.” He paused. The woman at the desk was still watching them. “Do you do taekwondo at all?”

Gai shook his head. “I know _about_ taekwondo. But I mainly do MMA.”

“What about Lee?”

It was astonishing how swiftly the fond smile pinged onto Gai’s face: It was clear how much he loved that kid, Kakashi thought.

“He does a bit of everything, including taekwondo. His sparring is excellent, but he tends to rush his poomsae or forget certain things. I’m thinking about entering him for another competition, once he’s fully healed and good to go. You never know, he could end up competing against you!”

“I doubt it. I am a blackbelt.”

“So is Lee.”

Kakashi tried to hide his surprise. “You must be a good teacher.”

Gai let out a short burst of laughter that rattled in Kakashi’s chest. “You’ll find out.”

“Is Lee your only student?”

“No. Most of my students are adults. And I don’t teach martial arts, except to Lee, and I only teach him what I’ve learned here. Most of the classes I teach are just general fitness classes.” Gai paused. “You know, I’ve been thinking about looking into fostering or adopting a kid. Or a few. Someone I can pass my youthful ways down to.”

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. “Why not just find someone and have a kid yourself, if you want one?”

“I’ve never been one much for relationships. You don’t strike me as one for them, either.”

Well, that was a little insulting, even if it was true. Kakashi made a noncommittal gesture.

Gai seemed to take it as a signal to continue talking. “It’s not that I don’t want one- I’ve had a few, but either their feelings weren’t so strong as mine or we just had different commitments- but when I know there are children out there who need someone to teach them in such ways, I can’t ignore that.”

They sat in silence for a moment while Gai drained the last of his water, swinging his head back so that the sharp lines of his tanned throat were exposed when he swallowed. Kakashi watched in silence. Gai was still odd- very odd- but in a way admirable. And open. A little too open, but not in a creepy way. Most of the time, anyway.

When Gai crumpled the bottle and tossed it into a trash can, Kakashi stood.

“I’d better get home. I only came to check this place out and see if you were here.” He glanced at the clock hanging above the reception desk. “My dog is probably waiting for a walk.”

While he was working the little old lady across the hall from his apartment usually dog-sat for him, but right now Pakkun was just at home alone, and he got grumpy if Kakashi left him for longer than ten minutes.

“You have a dog?!”, Gai gasped.

“Yes”, Kakashi replied uncertainly. Gai seemed excited. Anybody who liked dogs earned some points in Kakashi’s mind, and since it seemed the two of them were heading down the path toward friendship, it was likely a good sign. “Do you?”

“No. But dogs are the perfect pets: You can take them for long runs, they’re bursting with personality, they’re always happy to see you…”, Gai enthused, trailing off when he met Kakashi’s blank stare. “Hey, what are you looking at me like that for?”

Kakashi kept looking at him. Yeah, he could totally see that.

After a few seconds, Kakashi shook his head, heading toward the door and trying not to smile as Gai trotted at his heels to keep up. “Well, not Pakkun. He’s a lazy thing.”

“Oh, my pet is like that.” When Kakashi gave him a questioning look, he said; “I have a tortoise.”

“A tortoise.” Kakashi stopped with one hand on the door of the exit. He hadn’t expected that.

“When you lead such an active lifestyle and spend so much time out of home, you need a low-maintenance pet. He honestly doesn’t do very much.”

Well, the week was just full of surprises.

Kakashi braced himself as they made their way out into the parking lot together. It was dark and drizzling slightly, the headlights of distant passing cars trailing streaks of light across the slick floor.

They paused in the way that two people did when they sensed that their paths were about to diverge.

“Are you working tomorrow?”, Kakashi found himself asking.

Gai nodded. “Yes, in the evening.”

“Me too. I’ll let you know then when I’m free, and we can sort something out.”

“Yosh!” Gai grinned, waving as he made his way over to his car. “I’m looking forward to it, Kakashi! Finally the day will come where I prove I can best you in combat!”

Kakashi walked toward his own car, shaking his head and half-hoping that nobody was in the area who could have heard Gai’s loud enthusiasm. Still, the smile that touched his face lasted him the whole drive home.

*

Shizune found herself on duty at the reception desk that evening, as was usual. She liked it there, truly; liked seeing the children coming past, and ensuring that any visitors they had were supposed to be there so that everyone was safe. She was glad she had such a positive working relationship with Tsunade that she could essentially choose her hours.

It never felt too much like work, whiling away the hours assisting Tsunade with her administrative tasks, chatting with the kids, and getting tea with the staff. Still, today she found herself glancing at the clock. It was not that she wanted to head home necessarily; rather that it was close to dinner time, and she was wondering what to have to eat. Maybe take-out. She hadn’t had take-out in weeks, since the last time she hung out with Anko and Iruka and a few others after work. That had been fun, she thought, humming to herself. They would have to do it again sometime soon.

Distractedly, she looked back down at the folder in front of her. She was supposed to be checking this.

Coughing a little to clear her throat, she decided she would be serious now. Less than an hour to go and then she could think freely about food.

The sound of several sets of footsteps had Shizune pausing that thought. Just as she turned toward the right to face the corridor, Naruto, Lee, and their old little friend with red hair who had shown up earlier rocketed past, clutching what appeared to be pies in their hands.

Ebisu came sprinting after them, making for a rather odd sight in his sunglasses and a sunny yellow apron, waving a spatula in one hand and cursing at the kids.

Shizune struggled not to laugh, and even more so when she heard Tsunade sigh and call out from the office; “Is that Naruto?”

She bit her lip. “Yes.”

Another sigh.

“I’ll speak to him later.”

Sasuke came trotting out as Ebisu disappeared back around the corner, still muttering to himself. His sharp eyes often made him appear older than he was, Shizune thought, and she stopped laughing as he looked at her.

“I don’t know why he bothers doing that.” He sounded a bit like an irritable old man. “He has a whole stash of ramen under his bed.”

Shizune tried to keep any amusement out of her voice. “Oh, does he?”

“Yeah.” Sasuke turned to go, then stopped and continued; “He won’t get in trouble for that, right?”

The fight to keep her tone neutral was almost physically painful. “I don’t see why he would.”

“Okay.” Shooting one more suspicious glance in her direction, he too left.

Smiling openly now, Shizune turned back to her work. Well, as fast-paced as her job could be sometimes, there was no denying that it was certainly interesting. No two days were ever the same. Hopefully, though, that would be the last of the ‘interesting’ events for one evening.

*

The one benefit of having a friend staying over, Shino thought, was that his parents were happy for him to stay up far later than was usual.

It was just past midnight when his father came in to tell them to turn the lights out. Shino had seen the way Kiba’s eyes widened as he watched, from down on the futon, how Shino’s dad kissed him on the forehead before drifting from the room, leaving the two of them alone and in silence except for the howl of the wind against Shino’s window.

“Can I ask you something honestly?”, Kiba murmured out of the darkness.

Shino shrugged warily, then realized Kiba couldn’t see him. “What?”

There was a moment of silence and Kiba seemed to back out of whatever it was he wanted to say. Instead, he asked; “Why do you like insects so much?”

“Oh.” Shino relaxed. “There’s a lot of reasons. They’re cute. Most people don’t know it because they don’t take the time to look, but they are. Beyond the aesthetic reasons, bugs are so much more interesting than people think. Some of them like ants and bees work together in groups and have their own societies and ways of life. Others work alone and fight to survive, but even they have their own codes and ways of communicating.”

“Oh. Cool.” Kiba’s voice wasn’t exactly the most enthusiastic. Shino wondered if maybe he’d said too much. He wasn’t used to having people over like that. “I guess I kind of feel the same way about dogs.”

“You like dogs?”

There was a rustle as Kiba sat up. “Yeah! They’re so cool! My family breeds them- well, we used to, but then a lot of them got old and sick and we had to give some of them away. But I still have Akamaru!”

“Akamaru?”

“My puppy! He’s-”

They both jumped at the knock on the window.

*

If Naruto had already been asleep that night, things might have gone differently.

Only, he happened to be awake, and was staring at his phone when the text came through.

_Come to the window._

Blinking against the blur of the bright screen through the darkness, he double-checked the sender.

Definitely Kiba.

Why did Kiba want him to come to the window? Was he there? He couldn’t be, right?

Heart pounding, he typed out a question:

_Which one?_

Within a minute, he received three responses in quick succession:

_Not sure_

_It’s a small room with a kettle and a microwave and a small table and some chairs?_

_There’s a fire door that looks newer than the rest of the building_

The little staff room, over the other side?

Naruto wondered whether it was worth sliding out of bed to investigate what was quite possibly a prank; but then, how could Kiba have described that room like that? Naruto was sure it was one of the few places in the building that he wouldn’t have been able to get into when he had come around previously.

He slid out between the sheets, careful not to wake Sasuke, and shuffled into his slippers.

The hall outside was pitch black: It was getting close to midnight. His snuffled breaths echoed noisily as he trudged along to the receptions, glancing over as he passed. He could see the light coming from under Tsunade’s office door, but the desk was empty. Shizune must have had the night off.

Naruto made his way around, holding his breath at the door. What if one of the staff were in there right now and asked what he was doing out of bed? Was Kiba just trying to get him into trouble? Again, why would Kiba even be there?

Holding his breath and feeling as though he was stepping into a horror movie, Naruto creaked the door open and flipped on the switch.

The lights flickered on.

The window opposite, beside the fire escape, was tall, stretching from floor to ceiling and slotted against the corner of the room.

Just past the reflection in the glass, Naruto could make out a pale shape.

His heart dropped into his stomach as the pale shape came closer, pressing against the glass; only to return to normal as he recognized Kiba’s face, peering inside.

Naruto raced across, closing the door gently behind him, and opened the fire escape, ready to berate Kiba for giving him a heart attack.

The words died on his tongue.

In his sleep-deprived brain, he saw that Kiba was not alone out there.

Standing, shivering, beside him were Shino, Neji, Hinata, and a small girl that Naruto did not recognize. Each of them were in various stages of disarray.

Meeting the apologetic stare that Kiba was sending him, Naruto muttered; “What the hell is happening?”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo I meant to upload this about a week ago but it turned out like 4k longer than I had anticipated and it's been kind of a sucky week so sorry about that :( if you're reading this then I hope you're doing well! :))))

Had Asuma had much of a choice, he wouldn’t be working on a Friday night.

His ideal Friday night would have been out with his friends who at this point, regrettably, largely consisted of his co-workers. It was his own fault, though, for recommending them during the hiring process. Or perhaps it had been Tsunade’s fault for listening to him.

Scratch that- his ideal Friday night would have been spent at home with Kurenai, the two of them laughing together at a movie and-

“Asuma?”

Asuma blinked, pausing by the kitchen door. He had not expected to run into anyone while doing his rounds.

Peering closer through the darkness, he spotted Konohamaru sitting at one of the tables, tucked away right in the corner. He looked very small and pale in the weak moonlight, and Asuma felt the same tugging at his chest that he experienced whenever he saw his nephew.

“What are you doing up?”, he asked as he approached.

Konohamaru shrugged. “Not tired.”

Usually, Asuma would tell him to get back to sleep, but it _was_ a Friday. He could sleep in if he wanted. Besides, it didn’t look as though he was getting into any trouble. A silvery packet of chips glinted on the table in front of him, and Asuma caught the sound of Konohamaru’s small mouth crunching and chewing when he took a seat beside him.

“What flavor are those?”, he asked.

“Chili.” Konohamaru lifted the bag and held it out to him. “Want one?”

Asuma made a face.

The young boy tilted his head. “Don’t you like them?”

“Not really. They were your mom’s favorites, though.” Asuma stuffed his hands in his pockets, shuddering a little. It was chilly in the wide expanse of the canteen. Glancing down, he noticed that Konohamaru was staring up at him with wide eyes, and he continued; “Hot chili. She used to make fun of me because I hated the smell. I’m not sure why; I like other spicy things. But she always used to eat them around me when I was a kid.”

Konohamaru didn’t say anything for a while, chewing on his crisps. Even then, Asuma felt his nose wrinkle at the vague aroma that wafted toward him each time Konohamaru’s hand delved into the bag, yet at the same time, there was a faint nostalgia in the gesture.

“What else did mom like?”, Konohamaru asked eventually, and Asuma turned the question over in his mind for a few seconds.

“She was a lot older than me, and she moved out when I was about ten, so I honestly don’t remember a lot. I know she liked spicy food. And running. She was always up early to jog or exercise, I never understood how she did it.” He hummed. “I remember she was very kind. And she and your father were so excited to be parents.”

“Oh.” Konohamaru swallowed around another chip.

Asuma had only been sixteen when it happened. If he had been just a few years older, perhaps things would have been different: Maybe Konohamaru would have been able to come and live with him. But Asuma couldn’t really afford it, or even afford to have a kid around when he didn’t have the time to care for Konohamaru.

He wanted to get to know Konohamaru’s favorite foods, favorite movies, favorite games, only the circumstances would not permit it. Moments like this were all they were able to share together.

“Asuma?”, Konohamaru asked, and Asuma blinked, realizing he had folded himself away in his thoughts.

“Hm?”

His nephew wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth, then closed it again. It must be a big question if he was finding it hard to ask it. Perhaps something else about his parents. Asuma braced himself.

“Why do you never come to dinner with me and grandpa?”

Ah. That was a little more difficult to answer.

“It’s… Hard to explain, Konohamaru.” Asuma swallowed. How to explain the past few years of lingering silence, of stilted conversations, of awkward glances? It was best not to go into it, he decided. He would only tell Konohamaru the parts he needed to hear. “All you need to know is that I love you and so does your grandfather. And, if you ever need me, I’ll be there for you.”

Asuma’s father had many flaws, but Konohamaru didn’t need to know that yet. He would likely come to understand one day and, when he did, Asuma wanted him to know he had someone to turn to.

Konohamaru still did not appear convinced, biting his lip and looking down.

Asuma reached out with one hand, unsure as to what he was about to do.

Then came the sound of stuttering footsteps and a shrill scream, ringing through the air.

The table was pushed back with a screech as Asuma leaped to his feet.

Who was that? It had come from somewhere inside of the building.

Turning back to Konohamaru, who clasped at the packet of chips in one hand and gaped up at his uncle, Asuma instructed; “Stay here!”

A second later, he was sprinting down the corridor, towards the source of the noise.

*

“Is anybody going to tell me what’s actually going on?!”

Naruto didn’t want to be angry at his friends; really, he didn’t. It was only that, ever since he had opened the side door and they had all filed into the tiny room, nobody had said a single thing.

Instead, they stood there shivering. Only Shino and Kiba were wearing jackets, he noticed. Neji had slumped into the chair at the small table as soon as he entered, staring resolutely at the wall. The side of his face shone, littered with bruises that seemed to stretch his skin tight. The little girl was whimpering. Hinata sat with her on the floor, pulling her close.

Kiba and Shino shared a glance before they pulled Naruto aside, toward the door to the rest of the building.

“What? Why are you all here?”, he hissed when they still said nothing. At this point, he no longer cared about getting into trouble: He could tell that something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

The only problem was he didn’t know what, and not knowing how to help was killing him.

Kiba shuffled his feet, his face unusually somber. “It’s bad, man.”

Shino nodded.

“What do you mean? Who’s the little girl? And what happened to Neji?”

“That’s Hinata’s little sister, Hanabi.” Kiba indicated with his head. “I only managed to get about half of what they said but, Hinata’s dad- well, apparently he was really going to town on Neji.”

Naruto cocked his head, unsure of the expression. “Going to town?”

Shino murmured; “Hinata said she thought he was going to kill Neji.”

The ground vanished beneath Naruto’s feet, as it hit him all at once. Swinging about to peer at Neji, he took in the bruises, the way he hunched over and clenched his fists even despite being seated.

“How- how long has…” Naruto swallowed, finding he didn’t really want to know, and changed his question. “What happened? Are they running away from home? Like, for good?”

“I don’t know… I’m not sure what happened.”

“We didn’t get the full story”, Kiba added, his face lined with worry.

Naruto looked between his two friends, each of them drawing in shallow breaths. They were freaking out, but he could understand that. He was sort of freaking out, too.

“Okay.” He clenched his own fists and raised his voice. “Okay. We need to get you guys in some warm clothes. Come with me. But stay quiet.” They would probably get in trouble if they went to one of the adults now, he reckoned. He would, anyway, for letting them in.

“Hinata, where are we going?”, the young girl half-wailed, and Naruto could spot the family resemblance now, in the eerily pale eyes and long dark hair. “Where’s daddy?”

  
"Shh, Hanabi”, Hinata mumbled. “We need to be quiet now, remember?”

“But-”

“Hanabi”, Neji interjected. His voice was strained. “Please.”

That only made her cry even harder, her face turning red and puffy with tears. Hinata shot a desperate glance about the room.

Naruto made his way over to kneel in front of them, briefly meeting Hinata’s wet eyes before looking at Hanabi. She paused in her crying in the way kids did, confused and wary at the stranger in front of her.

“Hi. My name’s Naruto”, he introduced himself. “What’s your name?”

“Hanabi.” She spoke quietly, looking at her sister for reassurance.

“Hi, Hanabi. I’m a friend of Hinata and Neji. We’re going to play a game now, but you need to be really quiet. And if you’re quiet, I’ll let you in on a secret. Okay?”

Warily, her tiny hands still clinging to the front of Hinata’s damp shirt, she asked; “What kind of secret?”

Naruto smiled. “You’ll have to be quiet if you want to find out.”

The worry hit him that he would have to come up with a real secret to show her. What kind of secret would a little girl want to know? What was there in his room?

Ridiculously, his mind flashed to Sasuke. He hoped Hanabi wouldn’t think he was cooler than Naruto. It stung enough already that Konohamaru did.

It hit him: He would show her the spicy ramen hidden under his bed, and dare her to try it with him! Kids liked a challenge, right? Well, Naruto did, so he hoped she would find it fun.

Hanabi’s face slowly melted, and she wiped her tears away with one hand before nodding.

As Naruto stood, he noticed Hinata was frowning at him.

“Are you okay?”, he asked reflexively.

She stared back. “I…”

What a dumb question that had been.

He rubbed at the back of his head. “I’m sorry, Hinata.” For the question, and for not noticing sooner that something was wrong. He had been such an idiot. Of course, Hinata was so shy and nervous all the time, with everything that was happening at home. How had he not seen it?

Behind him, Kiba had remained hovering by the door while Shino crossed to help Neji up. Naruto nodded to each of them. “Come on.”

Kiba stood aside, allowing him to take the lead as they tiptoed across the floor. Asuma before the reception stood empty, but a light shone from under the door of the office.

Briefly, Naruto considered leading them to Sakura’s room, since it was much closer, just across and down the hall. But that would have meant waking up Karin too, and Naruto could not see her being sympathetic to a group of his friends waking them up in the middle of the night.

After a heart-pounding minute or so of creaking floorboards and hushed breaths, they made it to the safety of the room. Naruto held the door as they walked in, closing it softly behind Hinata and Hanabi after they walked in last.

He flicked the overhead light on.

And immediately cursed that Sasuke was a light sleeper.

His roommate was sitting straight up in bed, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Naruto? What-?” Luckily, his voice didn’t come out higher than a sleepy murmur.

“Shhhh! I’ll tell you everything, but you have to be quiet.” Naruto crossed the room toward him, ready to clamp one hand over his mouth and physically restrain him if necessary.

“What’s happening?” Sasuke seemed afraid, as though he were about to fall victim to a prank of some sort. Naruto thought that, with Kiba there, he was certainly justified in that thought.

Then he spotted Neji, and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly, the deep black color flashing briefly as they caught in the light.

Naruto met his gaze, one hand raised, and a second later Sasuke blinked slowly at him. It was strange, the way Naruto could almost understand exactly what he meant now when realistically they still did not know each other all that way.

Still, he figured it was safe enough to turn back to the others.

“You guys can sit down on my bed.” Naruto directed Neji, Hinata, and Hanabi over, and they shuffled across, the mattress groaning when they sunk down.

“What’s the secret, Naruto?”, Hanabi burst out, bouncing a little. She continued to sound wary rather than excited, her voice trembling a little, and Naruto noticed Hinata squeezing her hand.

Naruto brought back his cheery smile. “One more minute, Hanabi, and I’ll tell you.” He turned about the room before picking up his lamp. It was cool to the touch, since he started turning it off at night after Sasuke’s complaints. “Here, hold this. Count how many loops the spiral makes.”

He was not entirely sure why he did that, but he wanted to distract her somehow while he went to the wardrobe and began pulling out clothes: Shirts, hoodies, some warm pants.

“Here, put these on.” He held them out, and Hinata took the two piles he had, shifting one onto Neji’s lap when Neji made no move to grab them himself.

“What about Hanabi?”, she asked in a thin voice. Naruto noticed that, while she wasn’t stuttering like she normally did, it wavered and broke in odd places.

“I don’t think I have anything. Sorry”, he answered. He could ask Konohamaru in a little while, maybe, although Hanabi seemed unbothered: She was more preoccupied with the lamp for now.

Hinata nodded once. “At least it’s warmer in here.”

Naruto shuffled his feet. “You can change in the bathroom if you want, Hinata.”

Hanabi did not even seem to notice her sister departing, for as soon as the bathroom door had closed, she grinned and looked up.

“Nine! It’s nine spirals, Naruto!”

With a grin and a thumbs-up to rival Gai’s, Naruto took the lamp and set it back on the table.

“Now what’s the secret?”, she demanded.

Naruto made a show of crouching down and reaching under his bed. His fingers scrabbled against the floor for a moment before they brushed plastic and the crumpling of a packet could be heard, right around the spot where he kept the spicy ones.

Triumphantly, he pulled it out and held it up for Hanabi to see.

She tilted her head, large eyes wide even as her nose scrunched up. “What is it?”

“Special ramen. It’s spicy, so only the strongest challengers are able to eat it. Hanabi, I dare you to try this challenge with me!”

“Yes!” She bounced off of the bed. “I’ll win! I even beat Hinata and Neji in all the games we play at home! Sometimes I even beat daddy!”

“Naruto, be quiet”, Kiba hissed, at almost the exact same time that Neji muttered; “Hanabi, please be quiet.”

Naruto glanced briefly in Neji’s direction, where he was sitting up on the bed, and then did a double-take, trying not to stare at the expanse of Neji’s chest where he had removed his shirt.

He felt his mouth drop open at the pale scars that cut through a patchwork of green-purplish marks. They were only visible for a few seconds, quickly replaced by the largest sweatshirt Naruto owned: A dark olive-green one with writing on the front in Latin characters that he didn’t know. Even with Neji’s haunted expression, Naruto thought in a small part of his mind that it suited Neji better than it ever did him.

The larger part of his brain was on fire. How could someone do something like that? Wasn’t it wrong, for adults to hurt kids? Naruto knew it happened, sure: Some of the others who lived at the home wouldn’t be there if they had come from good families. Yet the shock of seeing the evidence first hand, rather than hearing about it in a casual story told as a joke years after the fact, had him clenching his fists tightly to his sides.

Luckily, Hanabi was too distracted to notice Naruto’s distress: Hinata had re-emerged from the bathroom, wearing Naruto’s large orange sweatshirt and a pair of joggers he had grown out of. In her hands were the clothes she had previously worn, folded in a bundle that was neater than anything Naruto could have managed.

“Hinata!” Hanabi ran over and clung to her sister’s side, blinking up at her as she tugged the pants’ leg. “Did something happen to daddy?” With alarm, Naruto noticed her eyes rapidly welling with tears. “Is that why we can’t go home?”

Startled, Hinata took a step back. “Hanabi, please…”

“Hanabi, come here”, Neji instructed, and she did so, pulling away from Hinata.

As she approached Neji, however, fear overtook her face, and she shrunk back. Before she could move away, Neji reached under her arms and lifted her up onto the bed in front of him.

“We’ll go home in the morning”, he told her. “It’s way past your bedtime.”

“Not my fault. You woke me up!” She pointed an accusing finger toward Hinata, who flinched.

Neji nodded. “Sorry about that. But right now, try and get some sleep, and then we’ll go home. Maybe you can try the ramen in the morning.” He sounded surprisingly calm when speaking to the girl.

Naruto expected Hanabi to argue some more, but she simply yawned, and Neji shuffled his way over and off of the bed, tugging the covers back for her. She laid down before blinking expectantly at him, and he tucked her in, wincing a little as he knelt by the bed.

A long silence fell over them.

And then Sasuke asked, his voice high; “What the fuck is happening?”

Naruto looked over: He was still sitting upright in his bed, his hair not as neat as usual. Although Naruto was not particularly happy with the way he had phrased the question, he had a point: He felt only a little closer to understanding what was going on.

Hinata stared petulantly at Sasuke. When she noticed Naruto and the others also watching her, she covered her mouth and hunched over. Neji seemed to almost be looking through her, his stare dull.

“Hinata? Neji?”, Kiba asked, his voice barely above a breath. “Why didn’t you want us to get Shino’s parents?”

Neji looked directly at him as he answered. “We received a visit from social services this evening. My uncle was not very pleased about that. He waited until Hanabi had gone to bed to confront me. He thought it was my fault. Even when I tried to set things straight.” He turned to his cousin, who was still curled in on herself on the floor, hugging her clothes to her chest. “You idiot. Why did you do it, Hinata? Now what’s going to happen?”

She lifted her head, and Naruto saw she had been crying. His blood ran icy cold at her next words. “He- he’s not, he’s not dead, Neji! You saw him get up!”

“What if you had killed him?”

“I couldn’t let him keep hurting you! I thought he would kill you!”

“Hinata?”, Kiba whispered, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two of them. He looked as stunned as Naruto felt.

“She knocked him out.” Neji swallowed. “There was- blood, everywhere.”

Blood?

Almost without his own mind’s permission, Naruto finally took in the deep red-brown stain on the sweater Hinata was clinging to. It was only small, something innocuous. But that it was there…

His eyes darted back up, widening in horror, and met Sasuke’s own. Naruto had the sudden distinct feeling that he had noticed the exact same thing.

He glanced back over his shoulder at Hanabi. It was difficult to see whether she was asleep or not; she had rolled away from them and was breathing softly.

“I didn’t mean to!”, Hinata whimpered behind him, her voice cracking with sobs. “I just wanted him to stop!”

“Hinata.” Shino’s voice, although merely a murmur, was a calm antithesis to the emotions building up in the room. Everyone turned to look at him as he continued, what Naruto could see of his expression firm. “You did what you had to. You could have saved Neji’s life.”

Hinata didn’t respond, simply tucking her head back down into her knees.

“Am I the only one concerned that he got back up?” Kiba turned to Neji, who met his eyes wearily. “How did you get away?”

“We ran down some alleys between the houses. I don’t know if he knows where we’d go, but-”

Abruptly, he stopped. His whole body shuddered, and a small moan slipped past his lips.

Naruto stood beside him, looking down. He found that he couldn’t even remember how to hate Neji.

“Neji”, he declared. “You’re not going back there. Or you, Hinata. I don’t care. We’ll tell Tsunade, and she won’t let you go back.” As much as he complained about the home, he knew that the people there were good. And Tsunade would fight for any kids there to be safe, whether she knew them or not.

A loud voice outside had them all freezing.

Naruto knew the layout of the home better than anybody: That was coming from reception.

They listened as the yelling went silent.

Then, a sharp shriek.

Naruto’s heart began to race.

That was Shizune. Had she stayed late again?

He didn’t have time to think, to double-guess. Footsteps came, growing closer and then turning away. Not heavy, thudding steps like in a horror story, but also not quite light. It felt scarier, more real, shuffling and staggering one way, then pausing and going another. Back toward them.

Somehow, Hinata and Neji had grown even paler.

Hinata began to shake. “He’s here. He’s here.” She screamed, crawling over to clutch at Neji, who gasped and shoved her off. “He’s here!”

Hanabi sat up, the blankets sliding away from her.

“What?”, she asked, twisting in her bed, and then her voice to a shriek. “Daddy?!”

Sasuke’s dark eyes bored into the side of Naruto’s head, and when Naruto finally turned to look at him, he said; “Naruto, we need to go. Now!”

That melted away the ice that had kept Naruto’s legs frozen to the floor. Acting solely on instinct, he reached for Hinata’s hand and sprinted toward the corridor.

In the hall, he stopped. He felt Hinata collapsing against him, and he didn’t blame her when he saw what was over her shoulder.

One end of the corridor was dark, leading down to the staff room. The other, where the reception was, was lit up just enough to silhouette the figure of a shadowy blood-drenched creature, its head rocked right back on its shoulders. This felt like a horror movie- no, a nightmare of a horror movie. The monster seemed more a vengeful spirit or an animal than a person, let alone someone’s father.

It lowered its head, a long curtain of hair falling over its shoulders and, absurdly, all Naruto could think of was the bulls he had seen on TV that charged the men with the red flag.

This really was a nightmare. His legs were moving far too slow, shaking like a leaf.

Tugging Hinata up, willing her to move, Naruto cried; “This way!”

It seemed to work: Once he had found his voice, the rest of his body snapped out of its daze, his legs working double-time to catch up. Hinata, too, forced herself upright and sprinted to keep in step, her hand squeezing his so hard he thought it might rupture a blood vessel.

There came the sound of a door opening behind them as they turned down the hall, and Lee’s voice began; “Naru-!”

“Shut your door, Lee!”, he roared back, and there was a gasp and a slamming noise.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Naruto saw that Lee had followed his instruction. That was about the only good news, for the monster was still behind them, now moving toward them, almost running in slow motion. It was only a few feet behind Shino and Neji, stumbling together at the back of the group.

Naruto’s heart leaped into his throat as a veiny hand stretched out, hovering inches above Neji’s head.

Out of the shadows, Asuma appeared. He snatched hold of the monster’s stained shirt and pulled him back. It only lasted a moment before the fabric tore and Asuma was slammed against a wall.

More voices, adult and child alike, were sounding, but they felt very far away as they ran.

The staff room door was closed. Was anybody even in there? How quickly would they answer if Naruto knocked?

Not quickly enough, he determined swiftly, for them all to get inside and away before the monster caught up with them. He was already beginning to head back in their direction, apparently over the skirmish with Asuma despite the fact that he staggered in an awkward canter, shaking his head.

Naruto looked from the monster to the dead-end of the door, to Hinata’s tear-streaked face, and back again.

There was really only one place for them to go now, until more adults could get there. While it may not be the best idea he had ever had, it still felt better than the thought of standing with their backs to the door, waiting for the creature to approach them.

Pulling free of Hinata’s grip and ignoring the soft cry that she let out, he scrambled over the gate that marked the closed-off corridor.

His eyes searched for the right door: There was one, he remembered, with a large window whose latch didn’t always close properly. Maybe they could lock the door, get out there somehow. His head spun as he tried to count how many he had passed. Especially in the dark, they all looked exactly the same.

Head spinning, he yelped when he felt something touch at the back of his shirt.

It was only Hinata. She had followed him. Over her shoulder, Naruto could see that the others were following as well, Kiba carrying a whimpering Hanabi. He couldn’t see the man.

What could they do now? Where could they go?

They could continue on, to the kitchen. But that would also mean going toward the area where the youngest of the children slept.

The adults would probably be there and in control of the situation by then. They could stop him.

But what if they weren’t? How could they buy more time?

“Naruto!”, Sasuke cried, and Naruto met his gaze. He was staring up at the ceiling.

Ah.

Really?

Naruto looked back to Hinata. Could she even make it up there? Could Neji? Could Hanabi?

But he wasn’t about to doubt Sasuke now.

The dark-haired boy had already vanished behind one of the doors: Thankfully he could remember which one they needed, at least. If only Sasuke had been around when Naruto was young and first exploring this place, he thought dimly. Then he might also have known about the window room and been able to locate it. They probably would have had fun.

Shaking his head to clear it, Naruto grabbed Hinata’s hand and nudged her out of the way, indicating to Shino and Neji to also stand back when Sasuke reappeared with the broom. Without sparing a moment, he smashed the latch and they all watched as the trapdoor swung open.

“Are you sure?”, Kiba asked, looking doubtfully up at the ladder sliding down to the floor.

The crash it made had them all jumping. There were more crashes behind them, only Naruto didn’t dare look back to see where the monster was coming.

“Quickly!”, he hissed at the others.

“N- Naruto?”, Hinata asked quietly. She had stopped crying. Now she simply shook, her hands and face deathly pale.

“Hinata, come on.” He gave what he hoped would be a reassuring smile.

Moving as fast as they could manage, Naruto led her up into the attic. The space was small: He had forgotten how small. That was probably one of the reasons Sasuke had decided to go up here, he realized; it was comfortable for them, but for an adult of Hinata’s father’s size, it would be cramped.

As soon as Hinata was safely sitting on the wooden floorboards, Naruto turned back to the hatch.

Hanabi was passed up to Naruto, and he set her down to help Sasuke through. Without stopping, he knelt behind the little girl and began to shepherd her on. Sasuke could move really quickly and carefully when he wanted to, Naruto realized. The floorboards barely sounded when they moved.

They vanished into the dark. Naruto expected Hinata to follow, but she only sat against the wall, half-visible in the light coming through the trapdoor. He reached blindly for the switch and, once he had found it, scooted back again to allow the others more room to come through, crouching in under the sloping ceiling.

Further down, Sasuke and Hanabi were stopped by the back wall where the attic turned a corner, pausing to wait for them.

Voices floated up from below, as well as the metallic ringing of the ladder as someone climbed the rungs. Kiba and then Shino emerged, urged on by Neji’s voice. When they came into view Naruto indicated to them to follow down to where Sasuke was and listened to the sound of the boards creaking under their combined weight on their way to join him.

Scurrying forward in case Neji needed help, Naruto felt a rush of vertigo when he looked over the edge of the trapdoor.

Neji was halfway up the ladder, his head just coming toward the hatch, when the monster appeared beneath. Seen from above, in that light, it was somehow even more terrifying: A chunk of its scalp could be seen through dark hair, matted thick with blood. Its eyes- Hinata’s eyes, Neji’s eyes, so light- rolled up in their sockets to fix Naruto to the spot. Its mouth was open in a snarl.

One large hand reached out for Neji.

“Neji!”

Even as Naruto choked the warning out, his upperclassman’s leg shot out, landing a kick square in the creature’s face.

It recoiled, and Naruto reached a hand down. Neji took it, and Naruto pulled him up and through.

Sasuke had reappeared by his side. Pushing past Neji, he stopped at Naruto’s side, and the two of them reached back down in an attempt to bring the ladder up.

Seeing what was down there, they both swiftly withdrew their hands.

“Shit!”, Naruto gasped.

It was too late. Hinata’s father was already on the bottom rungs. It would be impossible to close the door now.

Naruto withdrew, pressing himself into the crease where the ceiling met the floor and scrunching himself up as small as he could. He drew Sasuke into him on one side and Hinata on the other.

“Daddy! Daddy!”, Hanabi began to wail. She was sobbing, writhing between Kiba and Neji at the corner further along as they held her back.

Muttering, cresting and falling in volume, came up through the hatch, and the creature’s head appeared after it. It was difficult to make out exactly what it was saying, but Hinata caught snatches here and there.

“I knew it… That bitch sticking her nose in… Been hanging around here… She can take the half-breed if she wants.” It stopped suddenly, pupils darting in their direction. “Hinata. How could you do this to your own father?”

Hinata gasped, turning her face into Naruto’s shoulder.

Bit by bit, it emerged through the door: Long arms and fingers roving over the silken wood, dragging itself up. It crawled like a man possessed toward them.

So shrilly that it hurt Naruto’s eardrums, Hinata screamed; “Go away! Go away! Go away!”

She shuffled forward, and Naruto reached after her to stop her and pull her back, only his fingers only just carded through the ends of her hair.

Leaning back on her hands, she began to kick at her father, raining blows onto his chest; however, he caught hold of her leg and held it in a vice-like grip, turning the skin around where his fingers pressed white. Hinata screamed, and Naruto lunged forward once more, grabbing her outstretched hand as she was tugged along the boards. She cried out as she was stretched between them.

Asuma’s head poked up through the attic and he too reached to grab the monster, and Naruto briefly had the ridiculous image of a human chain, each of them playing a game of tug-of-war. Unfortunately, Asuma just missed his target.

Even so, the grip on Hinata’s leg relaxed a little when the creature looked over its shoulder, and so Naruto pulled at his friend as hard as he could.

The two of them went flying, landing with a thud against the wall and collapsing in a pile. Naruto did not have time to regain his senses before Hinata was already scrambling away to where Neji and the others were, fingers and toes clutching at the screaming boards as she dragged herself along. Sasuke was several body-lengths ahead of her, close to catching up with the rest of the group. Naruto turned to follow.

Heavy footsteps descended upon him and he stopped breathing, stopped thinking, simply kicking to propel his body away. All of the screaming and yelling and crashing came together as white noise in his mind.

An even louder creak sounded, ripping through his terror, and then a groan. Only, this time, it was not human.

Naruto’s heart skyrocketed through his throat, out of his mouth, and through the ceiling. The groaning and crashing sounds seemed to last forever.

When he finally found the nerve to look back over his shoulder, the creature was gone: And so was part of the floor. A gaping crater had opened up, various planks hanging down at different angles.

Slowly, Naruto inched forward. It was about the same place, he realized now, where he had almost fallen through, weeks before.

He peered over. The man lay with his eyes wide open, staring directly up. One of his legs was twisted at an odd angle that made Naruto think of Lee. He had fallen onto the floor, lying above the bits of wood and material that had descended from above with him.

Naruto thought he might be dead.

Only then those eyes moved to meet his, and Naruto dug his fingernails into his palms, overwhelmed by the pain and hatred and pure rage he saw there.

A sole, birdlike voice shrieked; “Dad?”

Peeling himself away from the edge, Naruto watched as Hinata crawled up beside him. Watched her face as she peered over the edge. Watched the shock tearing and crumpling into a flurry of emotions.

“I’m sorry.” The words flowed from her like a mantra, bubbling like a fountain. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Then Shino and Neji were there, too.

“You don’t need to apologize. You did nothing wrong”, Shino said firmly as he settled one arm over Hinata’s shoulder.

Turning back from the hole that had unfolded before them, she looped both arms about Shino, and they sat together, holding onto each other. Naruto was just glad that someone was there who was good at comforting. He hadn’t felt as though he had done a very good job.

Glancing around to find the others, he noticed that Neji looked as pale and shaky as Hinata. Perhaps he needed to be hugged, too. Only, as he approached, Neji’s face shifted and Naruto backed away, thinking that maybe he was about to vomit.

He backed right into a solid, warm shape. Sasuke.

His roommate gripped his arm and shot him a look that was devoid of any of the cool attitude he sometimes had: It was a disheveled look, and an open one.

Past him, Kiba was still clutching Hanabi, who had fallen silent around the same time her father had. She rocked back and forth in Kiba’s arms, shaking her head mutely.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s arms in return. Did that mean it was over? And, if so, just what were they supposed to do now?

*

“Well, I’m finally going to have to get that roof fixed”, Tsunade sighed, standing with her hands on her hips and staring up at the gaping hole into the attic.

Izumo and Kotetsu, standing slightly behind her, sighed. Iruka figured that they knew that was going to be their job.

They had carried the children down one by one, with the aid of a ladder and some careful maneuvering. Tsunade had insisted on climbing up the rungs herself, sandals be damned, coaxing the kids into her arms and passing them down to the others who waited below. Some of them were likely going to need some serious therapy, Iruka thought, from the looks of them as they emerged. The two girls in particular had seemed paralyzed in shock.

How could someone do something like that to their own family? What kind of person could hurt a child? It was probably a good thing that Iruka hadn’t seen the man as he was taken away; he had been seething in a rage that threatened to boil over, and which only evaporated when he saw the confused and frightened expressions on the kids’- some of them _his_ kids- faces.

“Shizune? Are you alright?”, he heard Tsunade asking behind him, and turned to see the receptionist, who stood with her arms wrapped about herself.

“I’m fine.” She nodded. “Just a little sore where he pushed me.” Her scream had been more out of shock and alarm than out of pain, she had explained to Iruka when they had run into each other in the hall outside, Shizune still shaking in panic. Iruka was glad: It could have been worse.

Iruka followed Tsunade and Shizune back to the reception, where Asuma and Anko had been left with the children and found they had now split into three groups: The younger members of the Hyuuga family, who had been taken into the office along with a few police officers and social workers; Naruto’s two school friends, one of whose mother had been called and who had apparently just arrived, judging from the woman speaking to Anko; and Naruto and Sasuke, who loitered by the reception desk, staring at their feet. Asuma stood further along the hall, turning any curious children who had been awoken by the commotion back to their rooms.

He overheard the mother of the schoolfriend as he passed, asking; “Kiba, is your mom coming for you? Or do you need a ride?”

“She’s not answering.” The brown-haired boy, who Iruka vaguely recognized, shrugged. “She’s probably asleep. Can I come back to yours? She expects me to be there, anyway.”

“Of course.”

“Stay safe, you two”, Anko instructed, in a way that was almost menacing.

Figuring that they were in safe hands, Iruka looked over to Naruto and Sasuke. Tsunade and Shizune were standing a few feet from the boys, although they seemed to be caught up in staring at some paperwork on the desk. That figured; they were probably going to have to file an incident report the size of a small novel after tonight.

“Naruto. Sasuke.” He made sure each of them had pivoted to look at him before he gave a sigh that he had been holding in for at least half an hour. “Why am I not surprised it’s you two?”

Naruto’s face went red, and he cried; “We were just helping our friends!”

Iruka had gathered as much, through the numerous voices yelling over each other when they had first taken the kids down, when they were first starting to piece the narrative together and figure out what the hell had happened.

“I know. And I’m really, really proud of you for trying to protect them.” He meant it. His throat was starting to choke with tears; he cleared it surreptitiously so that he could continue. “But you always come and find an adult first if anything like this happens, okay? I promise we won’t be mad at you.”

Naruto looked at his feet. “Sure. You say that _now_.”

Iruka tugged him into a headlock, recognizing the teasing lilt in his voice: He was clearly just trying to get a reaction out of Iruka.

Even as Naruto struggled to push Iruka off of him, Iruka was glad to feel that strength, to feel the warmth on the back of Naruto’s neck. Naruto was alive, and he was okay. Iruka couldn’t deny that he had been scared for a minute there.

“Yeah, I do say it now, and I’ll say it again.” Iruka released him and stepped back, taking on a more serious tone. “Naruto, I just want you to be safe.

“I know.” Naruto cocked his head. “What’s going to happen to Hinata and Neji now? And Hanabi?”

“I’m not sure. But they won’t be going back with their father.” If anyone even suggested it, Iruka would fight them himself.

Tsunade’s voice cut in from behind them: “They’ll likely be placed with a temporary foster family, for now. At least until things are sorted out legally. But they will be safe, and with people who are experienced.”

Iruka threw her a grateful smile. He knew Tsunade would fight it, too. That was just the kind of person she was. Stupidly, in his sleep-deprived state, Iruka suddenly felt proud to work alongside people who held the same values as he did, who cared as much as he did.

He really hoped he wasn’t about to start bawling in front of the kids.

Naruto was nodding. “Can we go back to bed now?” He gave an exaggerated yawn, arms raising above his head. “I’m really tired.”

What a little shit. Iruka had been trying to get serious with him, and that was the only conclusion he had come to?

Still, Iruka couldn’t really blame him for being tired, after all of the commotions that night. He could speak to Naruto again, perhaps in a couple of days when he was next working, to make sure the message had sunk in.

But before he let them go, he just wanted to check something.

“Sasuke?”, he asked, turning to the other boy. It was slightly alarming, that the usual sharp look on Sasuke’s face had seemingly been lost, his gaze distant throughout the conversation.

Yet, as always, Sasuke raised his chin to Iruka, a defiant gleam in his dark eyes. “Yes?”

“You got that?”

“I got it.” He shrugged, his voice monotone. “It was Naruto’s friends that came anyway. It didn’t have anything to do with me other than the fact that I’m Naruto’s roommate.”

Well, Iruka figured he was not going to get much else out of him.

“Fine”, he sighed. “Go to bed. Get some rest.”

He had not even finished speaking when they scampered off down the hall.

Iruka watched them go, and then turned to see whether Asuma needed any help.

*

It was not okay.

It wasn’t.

Hinata felt as though the walls of the room were condensing in around her. There were too many people in here, and even when she looked away from them, people stared at her from the photos on the walls.

Voices pressed in on all sides, a blur of static. Occasionally Neji’s voice cut through the words of the social workers and the police officer in the room, so familiar, but she could not hear at all what he was saying.

“Hinata?”, a voice asked, coming through a little clearer. It was the younger social worker, the man with a kind smile. “Can you tell me what happened with daddy?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She didn’t know. She didn’t want to say. Why were they asking her?

“Okay”, he replied, his voice a soft murmur. “That’s okay.”

There was more talking, and she thought that maybe she started to cry, although she did not know when. She remembered them pulling her father up, him being lifted onto a board to be taken away, and clung to Hanabi, trying to wipe at her tears. She hated him for what he did to Neji, but she didn’t want him to die, did she?

She wished she had never done it. It was a horrible thing to think, that she wished she had never stopped him from hurting Neji. But, truthfully, she had regretted it since the moment she sent the vase crashing down over his skull and watched him flop to the floor, head gushing.

If she hadn’t done it, there wouldn’t be all this change. She and Hanabi and Neji would still be at home together like normal and they wouldn’t have dragged their friends out of bed and gotten them in trouble when Hinata was really the only one who deserved to be in trouble for what she had done- and it was coming, she knew, she was sure, they were just waiting to tell her- and she wouldn’t be answering all these questions that she didn’t know the answers to.

People began to move. Standing. Looking down at her.

“Come on”, the other social worker, an older woman, said. Her smile was smaller, but her eyes were also soft. “Let’s go outside, shall we?”

The policeman, who had loitered against the wall with his jacket tucked over one arm, smiled. “I could definitely do with some fresh air.”

Their smiles, the kind tones, felt so false. Hinata knew it was coming.

Apparently, Neji did too.

Glancing wildly about the room, he asked; “Where are you taking us?”

The false smiles continued. “Well, first we’re just going to get you all checked over and make sure you’re all okay. And then you’re going to stay with a really nice family, just for a little while.”

“Where’s daddy?”, Hanabi asked, her voice hoarse. It was all she had said since they had been boxed in this office. Hinata gripped her hand tight.

“He’s not here. Good riddance”, Neji snapped.

“Neji.” Hinata felt the tears returning. One of the social workers passed her a tissue.

Even this fake kindness was not deserved. She had been so hateful. She had ruined father’s whole life now.

She held tight to Hanabi as they went outside, Neji walking beside her in the stilted way he did when he pretended not to be hurting.

When she saw that they were being led toward a car she froze. The policeman was holding the door open, watching them expectantly.

Here it came. She was going to be taken away for everything she had done, for hurting her father.

Every instinct in her told her to run.

Except, Neji touched her arm, and they locked eyes. He looked as scared as she felt but he was not running away.

She thought of Naruto. He would not run away, either, when things were serious. That was why she liked him, why he was the one she initially wanted to go to for help even after Shino encouraged her to stay at his. He helped them so much today. They all did, even Shino and Kiba and Sasuke and the kind lady who helped them down from the attic.

The tears fell freely now, but they were not all sad tears, more resigned tears. There were people out there who cared about her. This was the right thing to do, what they would do in such a situation.

Taking hold of Neji’s sleeve, the olive jumper he still wore, she followed him into the back of the car.

*

Naruto had claimed to be tired, but the second they got into their room it appeared as though he was unable to keep quiet.

In truth, Sasuke did not feel much like sleeping either. An uneasy feeling had settled in his stomach and, even though all of the dramatic turns of the night seemed to be over, he still couldn’t shake it.

“Maybe they’ll have some family members they can stay with?”, Naruto was wondering, clutching his blanket right up to his chin, his blue eyes wide as they studied the ceiling.

Sasuke lay on his side, watching him, and only remembered to hum in agreement when Naruto looked over to prompt him. That would be the best-case scenario for them, he supposed. Depending on what the rest of the Hyuuga family were like. Even though he did not care much for Neji and did not really know Hinata, he did not want them to end up in the same situation he was in. They were Naruto’s friends, after all, so they must have had some redeeming qualities.

“I hope they don’t go away from town, though”, continued Naruto. He looked back up at the ceiling. “I still need to get Hanabi to try the spicy ramen with me! And maybe Hinata and Neji, too.”

“They’ll probably keep them here because the school year has started. They won’t want to take them away while they have class. They’ll want to keep things normal for them as much as they can.”

Naruto turned on his side. “Hey, won’t it be cool if they come to live here?”

“I doubt that will happen.” Sasuke did not particularly want that, either. Even having Sakura coming in, and that annoying red-haired girl he saw in the corridor staring at him sometimes, and Lee across the hall, was more than enough annoyances.

He noticed Naruto was frowning at him.

“Why not?”

Sasuke propped himself up, fluffing his pillows behind him so that he was comfortable. “They come from a good family.” He cringed at his words a little as he said them, realizing how they must sound, given what had just happened. Hinata’s father hadn’t exactly given off the impression of a good family man.

“Good as in, wealthy”, he corrected himself. “They won’t be sent to a public-funded place like this.”

“But you were.” Naruto, too, sat up, folding his arms over his chest. “And I thought the Uchiha were meant to be a good family. Didn’t someone say that before?”

“Yes. But I told you, we lost most of our money.”

He found his mind drifting, dwelling on recent events. Not the events of that night: Rather, everything that had happened a few days prior, when he had gone to visit his brother.

He did not notice that Naruto had been speaking to him until something prodded at his arm.

“Sasuke?”

“What?”

His roommate had come across to stand by his bed. He was wearing bright orange pajamas with a khaki onigiri pattern on them. Ugh. Sasuke looked away before they could blind him.

“What’s wrong with you?”, Naruto asked finally. “You keep not listening to me and zoning out.”

What _was_ wrong? There were a million things Sasuke could have said: The fact that he had not had enough sleep, the fact that he was stuck in this stupid home without his brother, the fact that he had lost his parents, and so on and so forth. However… Going over and over the same issues was only a waste of time. Sasuke couldn’t remember a lot from before the accident, some days more than others, but he could recall his father explaining to him that sometimes you had to move on and not complain about your lot in life. It would do him no good to tell Naruto all of his problems, especially when the fatigue was clawing at his head and giving him a buzzing headache.

No. He did not want to tell Naruto at all. And, if he could just go to sleep now, in the morning he would better remember why it was best to stay silent about such things. No matter what people like Iruka said.

Sasuke rolled away so that he was no longer facing his roommate. “It doesn’t concern you.”

He expected Naruto to return to his own bed, but the sound of footsteps never came. There was only silence.

“Sasuke…”, Naruto whispered, his own voice ragged with sleep. Sasuke heard him swallow. “I know we were just roommates before, but… I always wanted to be your friend. Really. And I thought maybe we were starting to… I don’t know…”

Looking over his shoulder, Sasuke felt a prick of guilt adding to the knot in his stomach at Naruto’s downtrodden expression.

When he had first arrived at the home, what now felt like a lifetime ago but was still only some months, Naruto had grinned at him and spoken to him, and Sasuke had thought that maybe the energetic blond boy was making fun of him. But slowly, he had come to understand that Naruto wore his emotions openly and that he did so with everyone, always approaching them with the thought that they might, someday, be friends. Even quiet people like Hinata. Even loud people like Neji. Even people like Gaara, who was beyond Sasuke’s own understanding. And even people like Sasuke.

Understanding that Naruto was just treating him normally, the way he would treat everyone, Sasuke had accepted Naruto as his roommate. He could have made a fuss, demanded to move somewhere else, but he had not. Maybe, deep down, he had sort of wanted to be Naruto’s friend too.

Sasuke pushed himself around to lie on his back, staring straight up.

“A few days ago, when I went to visit my brother.” He stopped.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto’s mouth drop open. He moved back to sit on his own bed, nodding hurriedly when Sasuke threw him a quizzical glance as though signaling for him to continue.

Sasuke closed his eyes. “He wasn’t alone. I- My brother has a girlfriend, and they’re living together now.” His eyelids prickled with heat. “How come she can live with him when I can’t?”

“Sasuke, it’s not the same thing.”

He knew it was not: She had a job and paid the bills and helped Itachi with things Sasuke could not. But it still made him feel lonelier than ever, and it felt like the biggest betrayal, that he was not allowed to live with his brother when someone else could. He had known his brother had a girlfriend, but I hadn’t mentioned them living together. He hadn’t even apologized when Sasuke made it clear he was upset, sulking the whole day and purposely ignoring Izumi.

“I know. I know it’s not like that, she has a job, so…” Sasuke hated the way his voice wavered. “But I’m stuck here alone and… What if he forgets me?”

“He won’t forget you. How could he forget you? Sasuke, you have a brother who loves you and you’re complaining?”

“You don’t get it.”

They sat without speaking for several seconds. Slowly, the ridiculous heat resided, and Sasuke dared to open his eyes.

“Sorry”, Naruto whispered. “I don’t really get it. I know this is hurting you. But you know, that kind of hurt me, too. Because you’re not alone. You have me, now. I know I’m not your brother, but you’re not alone.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened, and he stared at Naruto. He was still sitting on top of his covers, legs crossed and hands fidgeting.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, the color of a clear midday sky. Throwing first one pillow and then another onto the floor, he slid down after them, tugging his blankets with him.

He looked up at Sasuke in a wordless invitation.

Inexplicably, Sasuke found himself leaving the warmth of his bed, pulling his own blankets and pillows down, to lay stretched out on the floor, a few feet from Naruto. He hadn’t slept on the floor in a few years: It was far less comfortable than he remembered, from nights spent ‘camping out’ with Itachi under the kitchen table.

Naruto’s breathing had evened out. Sasuke wondered whether he was sleeping already.

“It’s good you’re not my brother”, he said, testing, “because if you were I’d probably run away.”

From the punch that landed on Sasuke’s arm, he thought it was safe to say that Naruto was definitely awake.

“Hey!”

Sasuke snickered.

The sound of birds chirping outside drew his attention and he saw with a start that a faint ray of light was peeking in under the curtains.

“What time is it?”, he rasped, twisting to search for his alarm.

“Shit.” Naruto was staring at his phone. “It’s gone 5 am.”

“At least it’s a Saturday.”

“Yeah.”

The thought came to Sasuke that he wanted to tell Naruto something, something about family and how Naruto shouldn't assume things when he didn't know what it was like, only less asshole-sounding than that; but before he could even begin to formulate the sentence, he had passed out there, on the floor, among their nest of blankets and pillows.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to upload this a couple of days ago but got busy... I have two language exams this week :'( to anybody else going through assignments, good luck! You can do it!  
> Hope you enjoy!

The awkward silence was only broken when Shino asked; “Want to look at my ant farm?”

Kiba blinked against the sudden glare of the lamplight, shuffling up in his sleeping bag. He had no idea what time it was, but enough had passed that he had gotten tired and bored of pretending to sleep.

All he could think of was Hinata and the way she had looked when they had gone down to open the door to them earlier that night. Hanabi and Neji, too, but mainly Hinata.

Why had she not said anything before? They were friends, weren’t they? Had Kiba and Shino been bad friends to her in not noticing? Kiba wanted to ask Shino if he’d had any clue about what had been going on at home, since he was always more observant, only he had had no idea how to broach the topic.

So, in truth, he was glad of the distraction.

“Yep!” Kiba leaped to his feet, and nearly tripped over his sleeping bag. This was why he liked Shino: He was a bit odd still, but in a good way, an interesting way.

Shino also stood, sliding from his bed, and led him across to a tank balanced on top of his chest of drawers. At first, Kiba couldn’t make out anything, but then the occasional flicker of movement caught his eye.

Peering closer, he saw that behind the glass, the dark soil teemed with ants, moving through tiny tunnels that they must have dug out. There were so many of them!

Kiba watched them, entranced, only moving back when he caught sight of his own reflection gawping open-mouthed back at him.

Glancing to his left, he saw that Shino was also watching. Or, Kiba thought he was. He had put his glasses back on, so it was a little hard to tell.

It was a good job that Kiba had come over, really. Not just because he had been there when Hinata had come- although he hoped that his being there had helped them in some way- but also because it was just nice to take a break and spend time with a family which, while odd, were nice and calm and quiet. Nice to spend time with another person and not just Akamaru while his mom was at work and Hana was away now; his step-dad didn’t even count as company.

“That’s the queen, there”, Shino told him, and Kiba started, leaning in closer to see where he was pointing. “All the workers serve her.”

Kiba looked, but he didn't see how Shino could tell. All the ants in the area where he was pointing looked the same to him.

Turning to the other boy, he asked; “What about the king?”

“There is no king ant.”

Kiba pulled his head back, mouth twisting. How could you have a queen without a king? “How does that work?”

Shino’s face remained expressionless as he answered. “All of the colony are her offspring. She reproduces asexually, cloning herself.”

Cloning? Like in a science-fiction movie? Kiba looked from the tank to Shino and back again. Maybe ants were kind of cool.

“Of course”, Shino carried on, “there are male ants out there, and some ants do mate to reproduce, just not this type.”

He moved forward, and they stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the ants moving. They seemed to be marching almost in a pattern, Kiba realized, and a second after he noticed that his vision was blurring slightly, his eyelids starting to droop.

Stifling a yawn, he asked; “Shino? Do you think Hinata will be okay?”

His friend did not say anything for a long moment.

“I hope so.” His voice came quiet and frail, more vulnerable than Kiba could have imagined, coming from him. “Now that adults are involved.”

Maybe they should have told Shino’s parents first: Then they wouldn’t have had the whole problem of going up to the home, running through the wet grass. Except Hinata had seemed so scared when he suggested it, outright refusing. She was probably not thinking straight, he figured. Kiba was a little disappointed himself at how scared he had been and how scattered his mind became, especially when Hinata’s father arrived: He had felt as though he could barely speak the fear was so huge.

Being a man was being able to protect his friends, wasn’t it? So why hadn’t he been able to do that?

“There’s nothing we can do to change what’s been done now”, whispered Shino. “So don’t worry so much.”

Kiba sent a guilt glance in his direction, wondering how Shino knew just what he had been thinking.

“Wasn’t worrying. I know they’ll be fine.” He made a show of yawning. “I’m going to get some rest.”

“Alright. Me too.”

They lay down, Kiba rolling himself up and getting comfy on the floor. Shino had just turned the lamp off when another thought came to him.

“Do you reckon we should message Chouji and Shikamaru and those guys to let them know what happened?”

“You can if you want. I’m not really that close to them.”

Kiba frowned at the ceiling. “Why not?” Chouji was a nice guy. Kiba was not about to comment on what he thought of Shikamaru, but Chouji and Naruto and the rest of their friends were fun.

There was a rustling noise that sounded like Shino either was shuffling to get comfortable, or possibly shrugging.

“I don’t know”, he said. “I just never have been.”

In the short time they had spent as friends, Kiba had learned that, for all of his oddities, Shino was shyer than he first appeared. The wave of protectiveness that he had felt before for Hinata swelled to engulf Shino also. They were his friends now, even if they were both weirdos.

He fought against his drooping eyelids.

“Hey, Shino?”

When Shino replied, he sounded tired and a little exasperated, and Kiba resolved to sleep soon.

“What is it, Kiba?”

“Do you want to come for a walk with me tomorrow? Like, Sunday, tomorrow? So that you can meet Akamaru? And then maybe we can try to talk to Hinata, too, to make sure she’s okay.”

“Alright.”

It was hard to tell through the darkness, but Kiba hoped that he was smiling.

*

“Hey, I think something weird is going on with Sakura”, Ino said. She was staring at her phone, held loosely in one hand. “She messaged me last night, something about police at the home.”

Shikamaru was hardly listening to her. She had just made her first mistake.

Before she could even move, he dribbled the ball past her, toward the hoop, and shot it. He heard her startled protest behind him and Chouji cheering from where he sat in the shade drinking a juice drink. Usually, he would be the one playing and Shikamaru would be in the shade, but after two games that morning Chouji had complained of feeling overheated and lazy, and Ino had wheedled and challenged Shikamaru until his blood had boiled.

“No fair, we hadn’t even started the next game”, she whined as she made her way toward him, pocketing her phone.

Satisfied with his small victory, Shikamaru balanced the ball in one palm as he turned his attention to her earlier statement.

“What do you mean, weird?”, he asked, at the same time as Chouji called; “What about the police?”

Ino shrugged. “Yeah. I’m not sure what it was, though. She didn’t say.”

Shikamaru paused, feeling the sweat beginning to drip down his body from the exertion he had put on it combined with the heat from the sun, now directly nearly overhead. What kind of thing could have happened at the home now? The thought that Naruto had been arrested briefly ran through his mind, and he dismissed it with a smirk. They were more likely to arrest Sasuke for something. Shikamaru didn’t know what exactly, but he could see it.

There were a dozen different possibilities, really. Likely nothing serious. He hoped not, anyway.

Ino used his distraction to nip in and steal the ball from him, bouncing up on the balls of her feet as she shot it through the hoop and then whooped.

“You were shooting _that_ way”, he grumbled. “And you’re lucky I’m tired.”

Resting one arm against his shoulder- something which she knew irritated him and always had- Ino snorted. “When are you not? Have you still been sitting up watching those video essay things?”

“They help me sleep.”

“Clearly not, if they’re keeping you awake.”

“Whatever.”

He scratched absentmindedly at his back. It was a surprisingly warm day, yet the park was deserted asides from them. Strange.

Something caught his eye. More people?

Huh. Well. That was a surprise.

Dark, velvety green eyes flashed in Shikamaru’s direction, and grew wide.

Temari. And not just her: Her brothers, too. The three of them walked almost in unison, the youngest- Gaara- trailing behind his elder siblings.

It was a shock to see them outside of school. If anything, the lack of rules seemed to only emphasize their oddities: Temari’s skirt was even shorter and her sneakers even taller than usual, and Kankuro’s black outfit extended to dark makeup on his face. With Gaara’s odd tunic and scarf combination, the three of them looked as if they were each heading to totally different events.

Shikamaru had been interested in them ever since he first met them. It wasn’t often that you met someone in Japan who came from an African country, and especially not somebody that was actually staying there rather than on holiday. In addition, Temari in particular was clearly very intelligent and witty. Shikamaru had overheard her speaking French and struck up a conversation. She was interesting, in general, really.

He nudged Ino. “Hey, look.”

“Huh?” She peered in the direction he was staring toward. “Oh, shit.”

Temari had stopped walking, and her brothers slowed too, glancing back at her.

Shikamaru froze. Naruto had said they were friends now, right? Not that Shikamaru had paid all that much attention to their squabbles. He had thought that Gaara was a freak, and Kankuro was definitely weird, but he hadn't been about to go and get involved in a fight himself.

He raised one hand and waved toward them, a single roll of his wrist at chest height. “Hey.”

Gaara continued to hang back as they made their way inside the gate and toward the group in the park.

“Hey.” Temari addressed Shikamaru directly, in Japanese this time, although she shot a wary glance at Ino. “How are you?”

“Good. And you?”

“Good.”

It was troublesome, trying to come up with something else to say to her. What did they have in common besides language, after all?

“Is that a basketball?”, Kankuro wondered, nodding toward the round orange ball that Ino had abandoned after her last point.

“No, it’s a baseball”, Shikamaru told him with a roll of his eyes.

Temari smiled a little. “Why are you asking obvious questions, idiot?”

“Because you’re just standing there, duh”, her brother snorted back at her.

Ino finally stopped leaning on Shikamaru’s shoulder, letting her hand drop to rest on her hip. “Do you guys play?” Even he could hear the challenge in her question.

Kankuro’s eyes lit up. It made all the difference, Shikamaru noted, to his usual scowling and sneering face. “Temari and I play sometimes.” While there was an assertive undertone to his voice, it was more challenging and less outright rude than Shikamaru had heard before.

“We have a court”, Temari informed them. She flicked one loose strand of hair from her eyes.

Was basketball that popular in Algeria, then?

Kankuro must have caught Shikamaru’s confused expression. Shrugging his broad shoulders, he splayed his hands wide with his palms up and fingers spread. “It’s a tennis court, really. But they set up some nets for us.”

Wow. They really must have come from some nice private school. Shikamaru had wondered, from their manner and their often relaxed attitude toward the dress code.

He considered what it must be like. Their own school was small and had only the gym and the field behind it, which was often muddy, especially in Winter. There were a few nets and things that could be temporarily set up, but to have a whole court rearranged just for you… A school which let you engage with what you loved and, it seemed, helped you go at your own pace… Shikamaru was, admittedly, a tiny bit jealous.

“Do you want to play with us?”, he asked, attempting to force the words out as casually as possible rather than sounding like a pre-schooler trying to convince the new kid in the neighbourhood to come outside.

Temari and Kankuro swapped gazes, apparently considering without speaking.

“Is your friend playing?” Kankuro was looking over at Chouji, who was still relaxing under the tree. He shot the group a smile when they pivoted around to face him.

“Nah, he’s tired.” Ino’s ponytail brushed Shikamaru’s shoulder when she shook her head.

Kankuro pointed. “Gaara, why don’t you go sit with him?”

Gaara stared blankly at him.

“Unless you want to play?”, Temari queried brightly. There was a hopeful undertone in her voice that died toward the end of her question, as Gaara turned his dead eyes to her.

The red-haired boy shook his head slowly. “No. I will go and sit with him.”

He wandered away in the direction of the tree, head down. Shikamaru watched as he sat cross-legged several feet away from a nonplussed Chouji and stared in the opposite direction, at the distant main road.

Huh. Shikamaru had thought that Naruto said Gaara was okay now. Only, while he wasn’t screaming anymore, he still seemed moody. He was glad that it was Chouji sitting with Gaara: If it were himself or Ino, they probably would not be able to keep themselves from annoying him in some way.

Ino ran to retrieve the ball, and the game began anew.

It was fun, even if certain people did get a little too competitive at times. Ino certainly did not have to dig her elbow into Kankuro’s side that hard. In the end, Temari and Kankuro won three games out of five, although Shikamaru insisted it was only because they were both taller than he and Ino. And, they had not been kidding when they said they had played before: Temari moved with a willowy grace yet with a surprising amount of power, and while Kankuro seemed a little bulky, he was quick and- Shikamaru had to admit- a smart player.

Now and then he looked over to check how Chouji was getting on with Gaara. Chouji had sprawled out as he watched, leaning back on his hands, whereas Gaara had drawn his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms tight around them, resting his chin on top of them.

Once the games were over and Shikamaru and Ino had miserably conceded defeat, they all joined Chouji and Gaara in collapsing in the shade.

As soon as he had caught his breath enough to speak without pausing, Shikamaru propped himself up on one arm, his hand curled so that his knuckles brushed his chin.

“So, I’m curious”, he said.

“Hm?” Temari tilted her head to listen. She was sitting close to him, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Her spiked ponytails were a little disheveled now, short strands falling out and clinging to her shiny face.

“How come you learn Japanese in Algeria?”

She fixed him with a wry smile. “We don’t. Our father has tutors for us.”

Hm. Between the private school and the studying abroad, Shikamaru had figured their family were wealthy. And tutors for Japanese specifically, also?

“So, he wanted you to…?”, he continued, trying to get a clearer grasp on the situation.

Temari shuffled about to face him, sitting cross-legged and tucking her skirt down between her legs. Shikamaru joined her in sitting up, making it clear that he was paying attention.

“So, our native language is Arabic”, she began in French, pausing to clear her throat. “Well, actually, it was probably our mother’s native language, which was Tamazight, but we don’t really remember much of it.”

Shikamaru nodded, understanding the twisted look that took over her face: To forget a language, especially the language of one’s own family, was something he did not really understand himself. His own home life had been one lived by translation and the constant repetition of phrases in different languages, helping his mother to process important documents when his father was busy. He could only imagine the hollow feeling when one forgot their own mother tongue. Especially when, as they had mentioned before, their mother had passed away.

“Anyway”, she continued. She spoke primarily in French, although occasionally an English word slipped through, “our father had tutors for us to learn French and English, since he says they were still important languages: in Algeria and abroad. We have learned those since we were young. And a few years ago, he asked us if we wanted to learn another. He wants us to learn Chinese, but we just found Japanese more personally interesting.”

“Anime”, Kankuro interjected, and Shikamaru jumped. He had not realized Kankuro had also been listening.

“And it’s a beautiful country.” Temari shrugged. “I’d like to learn Chinese one day, though. I’d like to learn a lot of languages.”

Shikamaru considered before replying. “I don’t like many subjects at school- a lot of them are a drag- but if I had to pick one for a job it might be something to do with languages. Since it seems pretty easy.”

It was immediately apparent that he had said the wrong thing. Temari’s soft eyes turned to sharp, razor-edged emeralds.

“Translating stuff isn’t always easy”, she lectured him. “Think about different sayings in the different languages you know. And when it comes to things like international diplomacy, you have to be careful as something that might not seem offensive to one culture could translate much more harshly into another, or with different connotations.”

He had to admit that she had a point. “Okay. Yes. Languages can be hard.” And then, because her eyes were still harsh, he added; “My mom. She doesn’t actually speak Japanese. Well, she knows some, obviously, because she lives here, but she’s not exactly… Fluent. And sometimes when me and my dad speak, I see her nodding along and smiling, but I can always tell she doesn’t understand. And it makes her angry sometimes.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Growing up speaking certain languages… And having the resources and time to learn certain languages… It’s a privilege. I don’t want to feel like she does.”

Temari sighed. “I get it. I wish I remembered more Tamazight… Our uncle tried to teach us some but… Some languages are apparently more ‘useful’ than others.” She sniffed.

“Ooh, I’m sure dad can feel that burn from here”, Kankuro snickered.

His sister sent a chilling stare his way. “Kankuro. Stop.”

It worked: He fell silent.

Plucking at the grass in front of him, Shikamaru switched back to Japanese to tell them; “Our families’ restaurant isn’t far from here; we occasionally hang out here if our parents are working.”

“We’re staying at a… A homestay with an elderly man and woman. They live around the corner.”

“What are they like?”

“They’re okay. A little strange: They are brother and sister but they still live together.”

“Aw, are you saying you don’t want to live with me when we’re old, Temari?”, Kankuro teased, and again received only a glare in response.

Failing to elicit a reply from his sister, he shrugged. “I like them. They’re better than Baki, anyway. He would never let us go out like this, for the whole day.”

Shikamaru pretended to seem disinterested, concentrating on shredding the grass. “Who’s Baki?”

“Our tutor. He’s okay”, said Temari.

“He listens to our dad too much”, Kankuro muttered.

Shikamaru filed his comments on that conversation away for later: Clearly, they had a lot of thoughts about their father, and he was not sure whether he should delve into that with them right now, especially not outside, on such a sunny day, when they could be continuing the fun.

Unfortunately, it did not last much longer. When Ino stood and suggested they play again, possibly with Choujo and Gaara this time, Temari said they should get going. They had only been heading to the local store, and their hosts would be expecting them back.

Shikamaru walked with them as they made their way toward the gate.

“Temari”, he murmured, just as she turned the corner. His heart was thundering, and he kept his hands in his pockets to avoid showing his shaking hands. Damnit. Why was he feeling like this? He cursed her for bringing these troubled thoughts into his life.

Ah. She was still waiting for him to continue, one sharp eyebrow raised.

Ignoring Kankuro’s snickering and Gaara’s glare from behind her, Shikamaru hinted; “I’ll see you around sometime, huh?”

“I suppose.” Temari tilted her head. “We go to the same school, so it is likely.”

“Well, maybe I should have your number, so we can arrange something else like this?”

She barked a laugh, and Shikamaru felt his heart sink.

Yet when she spoke- in French this time, and Shikamaru had never given it too much thought before yet now he decided he liked the way that language sounded- her voice was teasing and carefree enough to not make the blow feel so heavy. “You’re too young for me, kid.” She winked. “I take half my age plus seven very seriously and, since you’re Gaara's age and I’m fifteen, you just miss out.” Pausing, her face sobered. “But if you ever want to play again basketball… Tell me.”

She stretched one hand out and Shikamaru handed her his phone. When she returned it, he saw that she had indeed entered her number.

He fought the smile at the corner of his mouth. “Geez, you ask a girl for her number and suddenly she thinks you want to go steady.”

Another tinkling laugh left Temari’s lips, and then she and her brothers were walking away through the gate to the park.

As soon as they were safely out of sight, Shikamaru flopped forward, landing face-down on the grass, not even caring that his phone bounced out of his hands.

Moments later, he let out a grunt as Ino jumped on top of him, squealing, and then they both groaned when Chouji flopped on top of them.

*

“And then this guy absolutely fucking drenched in blood-”

“Anko!”

“Oops, sorry, kids, forget I said that.” Anko covered her mouth with one hand, waving with the other to two young boys walking past. They gave her a weird look and then ran away down the hall, in the way that kids sometimes did when spooked by an adult suddenly paying attention to them.

Kurenai shook her head at their co-worker’s antics, and Kakashi couldn’t help mirroring her as he leaned against the wall, listening as the two of them swapped stories about the incident that had taken place the night before.

If only Kakashi had been there. Maybe he could have done something. Then again, that was ridiculous: There was nothing anyone could have done. Being there could have made things worse for all he knew. Still, he knew somehow that it would keep him up that night, wondering.

“Anyway”, Anko continued breezily, “Tsunade wants to go around the grounds with me this afternoon to check the fences since the kids must have climbed over quite easily. There has to be a flaw somewhere.”

Kurenai nodded again. “Mm.”

When Kakashi had arrived that morning, he had honestly had no clue that anything untoward had taken place. Everything had seemed perfectly normal. There were only two clues that let him in on the fact that something had occurred.

For one, the staff were loitering in groups in the corridors, whispering to each other. Asides from Kurenai and Anko, he had already seen Genma filling Raidou and Ebisu in on what had happened; he had been asked to cover the end of the night shift for Asuma, who was apparently fine but nursing a large headache after being thrown against the wall. It was unusual. Kakashi sometimes saw his colleagues walking in pairs or even threes, but most gossiping was done in the staff room. Now it seemed that as soon as one of them saw another, they felt the need to latch on and talk.

The other clue was that there had been no sign of the older children all morning, aside from hearing Karin’s voice in the lounge as he passed by, asserting that as she was the eldest there she should have control of the remote. Naruto and Sasuke’s door remained closed, no shuffling or voices to be heard behind it. He figured they must still be sleeping. And Lee, too: Kurenai had mentioned he had also been woken up by what happened. Sakura had not come to bother him yet, either, which was… Troubling.

Kakashi pushed away from the wall. Neither Anko nor Kurenai looked in his direction, engrossed in discussing how the man had been extracted from the place after he fell through the ceiling in the abandoned wing.

It would be best to check on the kids who had been involved: Just to be sure that they were alright. Naruto and his friends. It was always them, he thought with an ironic smile.

He made his way past the reception. A couple of kids running through, giggling, went quiet when they saw him, and he nodded his head to them in an attempt to disperse the somber atmosphere. It didn’t seem to work: They turned tail and fled in a heartbeat.

His first port of call may as well be Rock Lee’s room, he figured. Might as well get that one over with.

There was no sign of life behind the wooden door. Kakashi knocked; waited a minute; knocked again. No response. He hesitated before taking hold of the handle and creaking the door open, peering through the gap. Just to make sure.

The room was empty. There was no sign of Lee, not in his bed or anywhere else. Perhaps he was in the bathroom?

He was about to try calling out for the boy when a voice said; “Gai took him to the gym.”

Genma was leaning against the wall beside the room, arms folded. Kakashi let his heartbeat settle before he replied. People often accused him of moving too silently, but Genma seemed to be a master of discretion.

“Oh. Thank you.”

“What were you looking for Rock Lee for?” He raised one eyebrow. “ _Was_ it him you were looking for?”

Kakashi stared at him, unsure of what he was asking.

“I thought I’d go around and check on the kids”, he explained. “You know, after last night.”

Genma nodded leisurely. “Sadistic bastard, he was. Who’d have thought it?”

With one last dip of his head to Kakashi, he continued on his way.

Crossing the hall, Kakashi rapped on Naruto and Sasuke’s door with his knuckles.

There was a short pause, and then a mumbled; “Come in.”

He opened the door to find that Sasuke was sitting up in bed, still with his covers draped across his lap and his pillow propped up behind him. His dark hair was flattened on one side. Naruto sat on top of his own blankets, legs crossed and facing toward the other boy’s bed. They both wore pajamas. From the way they had both paused to stare at him, Kakashi had the impression that he had interrupted them mid-conversation.

“Hey.” It felt slightly awkward facing their blank stares, and so Kakashi remained standing in the doorway rather than entering the room, raising one hand to wave at them. “I heard there was some commotion last night.”

“Just a bit”, Sasuke rasped. He seemed tired, now that Kakashi looked again, with dark rings under his eyes.

“I thought I’d come and check on the two of you. How are you feeling this morning?”

Naruto shrugged and lifted one hand to wave it back and forth. His words came out wearily. “We’re okay.”

“Yes”, said Sasuke. “Tired. But alright.”

Neither of them really seemed to be in the mood for speaking, so Kakashi chose to take their unenthusiastic responses at face value.

“See you around then.”

The door closed with a gentle clicking sound.

He should probably check on Sakura, too, he thought. Although to the best of his knowledge, she had not been directly involved in what had happened, she was probably still friends with that girl and had heard what had happened.

When he knocked and was told to enter, he found Sakura sitting cross-legged on her bed with a notebook and a textbook open in front of her, writing. Doing homework, probably. An odd decision, after what had happened, and one that immediately worried him; if only because it was the sort of thing he might do.

“Hey”, he said, and her head whipped around to stare at him with a puzzled gaze. “I just thought I’d drop in to see how you were after last night.”

“Me?” She shuffled around, swinging her legs over the side of the bed so that she was facing him. “Oh, I wasn’t even awake then. I only saw the police and everything afterward.”

Sakura smiled as she spoke, only her lips were stretched too wide, her eyes too glassy.

So, they had definitely been friends of hers.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure?”

Biting her lip, she turned to stare back down at the page for a long moment.

Voice trembling, she glanced back up and asked; “They’re not going to get into trouble, are they?”

“For what? They did absolutely nothing wrong.” Kakashi struggled to recall what he had learned in the training for this job, the correct way to phrase his reassurances. “They did the right thing in getting help, in telling someone.”

“But they didn’t.” She spoke so quietly that Kakashi had to step further into the room to hear. “I told. I told Tsunade. And Tsunde called the social workers and they went straight to him and Neji could have died.”

Kakashi’s gaze drifted to her fists, clenched on her lap. Slowly, he said; “You did the right thing, Sakura. Think about it. Everything worked out in the end.”

“But what if it _hadn’t_?” Her despairing tone was heartrending.

“It did, so don’t think about the alternative. You did the right thing.” He wanted to make sure that she knew that. She hung her head a little, and suddenly Kakashi felt the need to ask her a question that his own therapist had asked him multiple times. “Is this all that’s upsetting you? Or is there something else as well?”

The clenched fists twitched slightly.

“It’s really silly”, Sakura whispered, “after all that’s happened, but… I still keep thinking about those letters, too.”

Kakashi nodded and made his way closer. He wouldn’t sit next to her: That felt too personal and was most definitely not in his style of reassuring people. This situation was already out of his comfort zone. Instead, he merely squatted by the post at the end of the bed, leaning against it for balance.

“That’s not silly at all. You spent a lot of time on them.”

“I so badly wanted to know how things ended for them.” Her voice cracked wide open, and when she turned to him Kakashi saw tears in her eyes and raw agony on her face. “It- it felt like, they really meant something, that we were going to learn a secret about this place that nobody else knew. And I started to think… If they had a bad ending, it meant that things would go badly for me here, too.”

Kakashi nodded. That was something that he could understand. The thought of something beyond your control influencing your life was both comforting and terrifying in equal measures.

“You know, how well things go for you here is something that you have control over, too”, he told her.

“I know that!”, she almost snarled. Kakashi blinked, and she retreated back in on herself. “Learning about this secret made me feel connected to the history of this place, that’s all. I wanted to know that things ended happily for them. They loved each other a lot: I wanted them to be happy so badly.”

Kakashi took a deep breath and released it in a sigh. Such an innocent hope.

He admitted; “I wished that there was a happy ending, too.”

He put his head down, letting that numb all-consuming feeling wash over him as it sometimes did. There were no such things as happy endings, of course. Just life, which was generally awful. However, before his thoughts could swamp him, he began to ask himself what he usually did at times like that: What would Obito and Rin say? What would they say if they could see him could hear what he was thinking? What should he be thinking?

For some reason, he found himself thinking of Gai, and what he would say and do at such a time, and that prompted him to lift his head back up.

“It’s great that this is something you’re passionate about, but just because it didn’t end the way you’d hoped, you can’t let it consume your whole life.” Kakashi glanced toward the young girl. She had stopped crying and was watching him warily. “Don’t dwell on the bad; think about the good points. I know you and Naruto and Sasuke grew closer while doing your research.” That much was undeniable, having watched them over the past few weeks. “And you have a unique story for your project. Somehow, I don’t think your classmates all have secret old love letters hidden in their attic, do you?”

Sakura giggled at the thought, and Kakashi gave a tiny smile, relieved that her bad mood had shifted.

Figuring that his work there was done, he got up to leave, only to pause when Sakura spoke once more.

“I’m really glad.” She sniffed. “That this project brought us all together. I had friends before, but I felt kind of alone still. Now I have people I can talk to whenever.”

Kakashi turned to her. “Good.”

“Thank you, Kakashi.”

When he smiled, he ensured that the neck of his sweater was pulled down enough that she could see it.

As he made his way back out into the corridor, he thought that it was true: He had people he could talk to now, too. Even if half of them were bratty kids.

*

Naruto was hanging upside down from Sasuke’s bed long enough that he thought the blood was starting to pool in his brain because he felt very smart all of a sudden.

The reason he felt smart was currently sat at the head of the bed, frowning at his phone.

“You beat me”, Sasuke said after a long beat of silence, as though he couldn’t quite believe it.

Naruto hummed happily. “Yep.”

“ _How_ did you beat me?”

“I told you I was good at it.”

Sasuke shot him a despairing look and then launched his phone across the room and onto his own bed.

“Nice throw.” Naruto sat up, swaying a little at the dizzy feeling fuzzing up his thoughts.

More by a self-imposed rule than anything else, the two of them had been confined to their rooms for the day and, after spending a few hours wallowing in misery, Naruto suggested that they play a game of Shogi. Since neither of them had a board, they managed to find an app on their phones where they could play against each other. It had been fun. Sasuke had even laughed a couple of times, at dumb jokes and puns Naruto had made. Maybe they were finally truly getting through to him.

“I’m not that dumb, you know”, Naruto scoffed when Sasuke continued to scowl, this time at the ceiling above them.

“Never said you were.” Well, that was a lie.” But I just didn’t expect you to be good at Shogi.”

“Shikamaru’s dad taught me. Shikamaru is really good, he always beats me. I sometimes play with Iruka and some of the other workers here.”

Sasuke asked; “Have you ever played with Tsunade?”

“Once.” Naruto still felt traumatized by the experience. It must have shown on his face because Sasuke frowned sagely.

“She wiped the floor with you?”

“Hey now, I wouldn’t say wiped the floor! But she did win.” Crossing his arms, Naruto grumbled to himself; “One day I’ll get good enough to beat her.”

Sasuke watched him with narrowed eyes for a moment. Naruto was just about to ask him what he was staring at when he said; “Have you been friends with Shikamaru for a long time?”

What had brought that question on? Oh, yeah; Naruto had mentioned Shikamaru’s dad teaching him to play.

“I guess”, he answered. “We kind of started to become friends in middle school. Shikamaru was always kind of a smart guy, you know, and he was one of the first ones to… Well, not treat me differently because I was in a home.”

Sasuke hadn’t looked away. “But before that?”

Looking down to the dark wooden floor, Naruto could almost feel that same feeling again, scratching along his spine and tugging at his skin. All the times he sat alone in elementary school. How the other kids in class would make faces and protest when asked to work with him. Watching the other children play and laugh, seemingly so far away from him.

“Iruka was really my only friend back then. And Lee.” He felt another pang of guilt. He and Lee had not spent so much time together lately: They’d both been busy, Naruto with his project and Lee with… Whatever it was he was up to. Naruto should probably speak to him. Neji was his best friend, after all. He was likely worried. “Oh, and Konohamaru!”

His roommate remained silent. When Naruto looked, he saw that his stare had turned glassy.

Loud footsteps came thudding down the hall and the door to their room was flung wide open. Naruto jumped onto his knees, prepared to yell at whoever was responsible, only to see Inari, one of the youngest boys at the home, stomping into the center of the room and then straight at Naruto. It wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to: Honestly, Naruto liked all of the little kids there, even if they could be annoying sometimes, and in turn they liked him.

“Naruto! Naruto!”, he squealed, “Loooook!”

Naruto jerked his head back, sinking down into his previous seated position. “Huh? Look at what?”

“My drawing!”

Proudly, Inari opened up the piece of paper he had rolled in his hand.

Naruto squinted. It was definitely a drawing. Of what, he couldn’t tell.

“Oh, cool!”, he cooed, and Inari beamed.

Sasuke scoffed. “Your drawing is shit.”

As soon as Naruto gave him a sharp glance, he cleared his throat and amended his statement.

“Sorry. That was a joke. It’s very good. I can definitely see what it is.”

Holding back laughter, Naruto went to tell Sasuke to stop talking as though someone was holding a gun to his head, only Inari started to speak before he could.

“It’s my dad! But he’s an action hero, see? Both his arms have swords, like… This!”

Inari stepped away from the bed, holding his arms out to his sides. He spun around, making swishing sounds with his mouth. The piece of paper clenched in his left hand flapped as he twirled. And then, he stretched his arms out behind him like a plane, and dashed from the room, narrowly avoiding running into the wall on his way out.

Once he was gone, Naruto burst out laughing.

“You sounded so forced!” He pointed at Sasuke, clutching his stomach. “Have you ever spoken to someone younger than you before?”

Without answering, Sasuke retreated back to his own bed, slid under the covers, grabbed his phone, and rolled over to face away from Naruto.

Naruto wasn’t going to let him get away with it this time. Wiping his eyes and ignoring Sasuke’s groan when he started talking, he whined, in the most annoying voice possible; “Are you ignoring me? You’re ignoring me, aren’t you? Hey, Sasuke, stop-”

*

“Alright, Lee!”, Gai bellowed. “Are you ready?”

The boy immediately sprang to attention. “Yes, sir!”

Gai held his hands out in front of him, palms out, and Lee began his routine spinning and kicking. Even with his arm still in a cast and moving slower than usual so as not to jostle it, more going through the motions than striking against Gai’s palms with any real force, he was moving with the same speed and power that Gai had come to expect of his star pupil.

Eventually, though, all must come to an end. Gai set his hands on his hips.

“Alright, I think that’s enough for today.”

Lee whined.

It was tempting to let him carry on. Gai had been having fun in their training sessions also, after all, and had caved when the boy pestered him to practice the kicks he had learned at the gym today. But now that they were back at the home, they needed to start their cooldown. Lee would understand one day.

“No, it’s time for cooldown stretches. Get to it.”

Immediately, Lee dropped down into splits. Gai winced a little. He wished he was flexible enough to do that: He had never quite gotten the hang of it. But if Lee could do it with a broken arm, on the floor of his cold bedroom, Gai was sure that he could too, if he only set his mind to it. He would just have to try again and work his way up.

For now, though, he settled on stretching his calves with one hand against the wall.

From the open doorway, Kakashi called; “Did you two just get back from the gym?”

“Ah, Kakashi.” Gai tried to act cool as he swiveled, not wanting Kakashi to know that he had not heard his approach. “I was wondering when I was going to see you. Have you been keeping tabs on me?”

“Actually, I came looking for Lee earlier, but Genma said you’d gone to the gym.”

“Hm, likely story.”

Kakashi strolled in and right up to them. Gai eyed him suspiciously; he was clearly up to something from the affected nonchalance in his walk, hands buried in his pockets.

Despite Gai’s vigilance, Kakashi moved so quickly that he had no time to react, and then something icy was touching the back of his neck.

Over the sound of his own yelp, Gai heard Kakashi snickering; “Feel how cold my hands are.”

“Why are they even that cold?”, scolded Gai.

“I’ve always had cold hands. What’s the phrase?” Kakashi tilted his head, silvery hair falling to one side. “Cold hands… Warm heart?”

“Are you sure it’s not cold heart?”, Gai grumbled under his breath. That was a dirty trick, and he was mad that he had not anticipated it.

“Did you hear what happened, last night?”, his colleague continued, switching the subject as he leaned against the wall by Lee’s bed.

Gai lowered his eyes, feeling his face growing dark. “Anko told me.” That was one of the reasons he had taken Lee out, to distract him. “If I had been here-”

He broke off, unwilling to finish the sentence while Lee was still in the room. However, Kakashi nodded as if he understood.

“Are you alright, Lee?” He peered down at the boy, who was now touching his fingers to his toes. “You weren’t involved, were you?”

Lee straightened up, resting back on his hands. “I saw the man when he was here! Neji’s father!” He bit his lip. “I really hope Neji is okay. I can’t believe that was his father. He was awful.”

“I think everyone is a little shaken up at the moment, which is normal”, Kakashi replied sombrely. He looked at Gai. “The sooner things get back to normal around here the better. Whatever normal is for this place.”

Following up on that line of thought and trying to steer the conversation in a normal direction, Gai asked; “Hey, have you managed to get any more information about those letters yet?”

“No. I feel bad; Sakura was so upset they ended on such a bad note.” A joking lilt to his tone, Kakashi added; “Personally, I just wanted to know about the tragic death that happened here.”

“Oh, you mean the young man who died here?”

In perfect unison, two heads snapped around to stare at the teen.

“What?”

“What do you mean, Lee?”

“Oh… It’s nothing, just… You said tragic death here, and, well-”, the end of his sentence came bursting out in a rush, as though floodgates had burst open, “-when I did my research for the history project last year I found an old news article about someone who died here and I don’t know who it was and it’s kind of weird they wouldn’t mention who it was but I just thought that that was what you were talking about.”

He stared back at the two adults, who were gaping at him in silence.

“That… Wasn’t it?”, he finished nervously.

“Can we see the news article?”, Kakashi asked. Gai was glad he did: He himself currently still lacked the ability to speak, his jaw working.

Had Lee known about this all along? Oh, he had been such a fool for not asking him before!

“I… Don’t know if I still have it…” Lee scratches the back of his head, then perked up, bouncing to his feet. Always looking at the positive side, Gai thought proudly. “But I can look!”

“We’ll help you!”, enthused Gai. “Do you remember where you had it?”

“Tenten might have our old project stuff. I’ll text her.”

As he pulled his phone out, Gai exchanged a tense glance with Kakashi, and was thrilled to find that the other man looked as excited as he felt. It was a good thing, really: He felt he was beginning to read Kakashi better now. In fact, it felt bizarre that he had struggled with it in the first place: Even if Kakashi tried to hide his feelings a lot of the time, he was really as open as a book, with all of his little glances and movements, all signs of what he was really thinking. He was just a little faster than Gai sometimes, was all, and it took him a while to work out what Kakashi was trying to say. And he was sneaky, too. Gai rubbed his chin. Sneaky, sneaky Kakashi.

He grinned to himself. Yes. He and Kakashi were fast on their way to becoming close friends and arch-rivals, and together with Lee they were going to crack this case open!


End file.
